Römerbrücke und Moselkrahn (Roman bridge and Moselle cranes )

The pilings of the Römerbrücke (Roman Bridge) from A.D. 144-152 (the arches and roadway are from the 18th century) are deeply embedded in the bedrock underneath the river gravel. They were built with huge stone blocks held together with iron clamps as in the Porta Nigra (the Roman clamps are invisible inside the pilings; the visible clamps are from later times). This time, the black color is genuine: the stone is mostly basalt from the Eifel mountains. On March 2, 1945, General Patton's tanks captured the bridge so quickly that it was not blown up - the (empty) charge chambers are still visible from the up-river side of the bridge.

The way down the Moselle takes the visitor back to the Porta Nigra. The street is a high water dam from the 1920's; it follows the former Roman as well as the medieval city wall. The river bank was, of course, harbor and docking area both in Roman and medieval times. A first indication is a crane from 1774 with the same technology as the one further downriver from 1413: a cylindrical structure mounted by a moveable roof driven by a central oak beam, a huge treadmill inside the cylinder, operating the pulleys on the two loading arms. The mechanism was used until the beginning of the 20th century and is kept operational; it can be seen through the small windows.