McNair-Brücke

On 6 March 1945, German engineers blew up the Hohenzollern Bridge, the last intact Rhine bridge in Cologne. After US tank units that had crossed the Rhine at Remagen reached Cologne-Porz on 14 April 1945 and occupied the right-bank districts, the US Army initially crossed the river via the so-called American Bridge, a pontoon bridge south of the Südbrücke between Poll and Bayenthal. This proved insufficient for the demand.

As a result, construction of a second temporary bridge began on 21 April 1945. The 1057th Port Construction Group of the US Army built a trestle bridge next to the destroyed Deutz Suspension Bridge. In addition to traffic, the structure also carried lines that supplied Cologne's Old Town with water and electricity from the right-bank suburbs. The bridge was completed and inaugurated on 24 May 1945; it was named after Lesley J. McNair, a US general who had died in France in July 1944.

At first only military personnel were allowed to cross the bridge. Owing to the large influx of returnees and refugees, it was later opened to civilians as well. Before crossing, however, they had to be dusted with DDT powder at specially set-up delousing stations.

The bridge stood next to the destroyed Deutz Suspension Bridge near Rhine kilometre 688 and connected Cologne's Old Town with the right-bank district of Deutz.

Due to scouring of the wooden piles, the McNair Bridge had to be closed to vehicle traffic in early 1946. From September of the same year it was no longer used at all and was subsequently dismantled without delay.