Fun fact: There are Lego bridges in Germany that you can walk on
You must have made many structures with those cute, brightly hued building blocks of Lego. Ever made a walking bridge? Do you know there are Lego bridges in Germany you can actually walk upon? Yes, these Lego bridges cross over the Schwesterstraße in the North Rhine-Westphalian city of Wuppertal in Germany.
Is the Lego bridge real?
Now before you actually start making a bridge with Lego and try walking on it, let us tell you these Lego bridges are not at all the bridges made out of the toy Lego. In fact, they are concrete beam bridges that have been repainted in the style of Lego bricks to give them a unique and interesting look.
The first of these bridges, a part of the Wuppertal North Railway, had been decommissioned in 1991 and was converted into a bikeway and footway. But the bridge made out of concrete looked dull when viewed from ground level. It badly needed some colour to revitalise it and therefore the city council hired graffiti and street artist Martin Heuwold to do the job.
When was it built?
Designed in 2011 by Heuwold, Lego Bridge 1.0 is one of the most famous Lego theme structures around the world. Heuwold and his team converted the bridge into a giant Lego structure using coloured panels that create the illusion of being the underside of Lego bricks. He spent two weeks painting the 2700-square foot bridge, a design that clings to the bridge today.
His work received national and international media attention and was awarded the Deutscher Fassadenpreis (a German façade award) Advancement Prize in 2012. He also received the “Outstanding Landmark in the Land of Ideas” award (Culture category) in 2013.
Lego Bridge 2.0
That’s not all. Heuwold developed the second Lego bridge or Lego Bridge 2.0, called the ‘Rainbow Bridge’ recently in 2020. A concrete beam bridge again, this colourful structure also crosses over the Schwesterstraße in the North Rhine-Westphalian city of Wuppertal.
Inspiration behind Heuwold’s Lego design
Heuwold saw his daughters playing with Lego blocks all the time and therefore he thought of Lego bricks as a theme. And it has come out well. The concrete bridge with Lego theme is a large-scale success of every child's attempt to build a big Lego structure.