Amerikanerbrücke

After the 1st US Army reached Cologne on 5 March 1945 as part of Operation Lumberjack, German engineers blew up the Hohenzollern Bridge on 6 March 1945 — the last intact Cologne bridge across the Rhine. On 14 April 1945, US Army armoured troops who had earlier crossed the Rhine at Remagen reached Cologne-Porz and subsequently took full control of the districts on the right bank of the Rhine.

To enable movement between the two banks of the Rhine, the US Army erected a pontoon bridge south of the Südbrücke. Depending on the source, construction is dated to either 16 March or April 1945, with the April date considered more likely, since only from then on were both banks of the Rhine occupied by the US Army. The bridge was nine metres wide; a 25-metre navigation opening kept the still-essential Rhine shipping traffic flowing.

The Amerikanerbrücke was built between Cologne's two destroyed southernmost bridges, the Südbrücke and the Rodenkirchen Bridge, near Rhine kilometre 684. It connected the districts of Poll and Bayenthal and led, as an extension of Schönhauser Allee, onto the Poller Wiesen.

With the construction of the McNair Bridge, the Amerikanerbrücke lost its importance. It was dismantled in September 1946.