The Victory Bridge Turns 80

Some accounts regarding the inauguration of the Vosk Bridge state that at the order of Reza Shah, an Austrian engineer was instructed to be under the bridge when the first train passed, so that if the bridge collapsed, he would be the first casualty. Now, 80 years have passed since the construction of this bridge, and it still stands. In 1943, the Allies' attack on Iran was imminent, and the Germans were deeply concerned that the Allies would occupy Iran and subsequently send military and food supplies to Stalingrad. Following this concern, General Meyer delivered a letter from Hitler to Reza Shah, in which Hitler requested that Iran blow up all bridges and tunnels along the national railway, including the Vosk Bridge, so that in the event of an Allied attack on Iran, the dispatch of troops and food from southern Iran to the north and towards the borders with Russia would be delayed. Hitler promised Reza Shah that after the war and complete victory over the Russians, he would build the same railway, bridges, and tunnels, or even better ones, for Iran as a reward for Reza Shah's efforts during the war. However, in response to Hitler's letter, Reza Shah asked General Meyer to convey his regards to the Führer and assure Hitler that Iran was a member of the Geneva Convention and had declared neutrality in this war. Thus, no country had the right to enter Iranian territory during the war. Due to the potential entry of the Allies into Iran and their use of the Iranian railway, it was decided that all bridges would be mined. The Vosk railway bridge was also included in this order, but the bridges were never blown up, and the Allies, upon learning of this, proceeded to defuse the mines. Mohammad Sajadi, Iran's Minister of Roads from 1938 to 1941, mentioned regarding the mining of the Vosk Bridge: 'Upon hearing terrifying news from the Soviet war fronts, orders were given to mine the Vosk Bridge and other important railway bridges, and this was done carefully and confidentially. However, after the Allies occupied Iran, no order was issued to blow up the bridges, and the Allies became aware of their exact locations.' Researcher Payman Sadefi, who has studied the history of this bridge, states about its significance: 'The Vosk Bridge became famous during World War II for its role in aiding the Soviet Union besieged by Hitler's Germany and earned the title of the Victory Bridge. According to Allied commanders, if the Iranian railway did not exist, the map of the world would have looked different.' But how was this bridge established? The construction of the Vosk Bridge began in mid-November 1934 and was officially inaugurated on May 5, 1936. The cost of constructing the Vosk Bridge was reported to be 2 million and 600 thousand rials. This bridge is located on the national railway route from north to south and is built at a height of 110 meters from the bottom of the valley with a span of 66 meters using primitive tools. The structure is made of cement mortar, washed sand, and bricks, and no reinforcement was used in its construction. In other words, this structure was built from unreinforced mortar. During Reza Shah's reign, on May 1, 1933, Jürgen Saxild, as the CEO of the Danish company Compsax, signed a contract for the construction of the north-south railway in Iran. Jürgen Saxild committed to completing 900 kilometers of railway in Iran under this contract. Before this contract, some American, British, French, and German companies had failed to construct the railway through the Alborz Mountains. After signing the contract, the best engineers from Europe came to Iran, and after taking aerial photographs of the Alborz Mountains, they realized that the railway had to pass through the village of Abbasabad (later renamed Vosk), and after passing through the village of Vosk, the train would need to ascend 600 meters over a distance of ten kilometers, which was impossible for a train to navigate on such a steep gradient. They decided to implement the route in a three-step manner along the mountainside, which became known as the three gold lines. The existence of the Vosk Valley posed another challenge for the Compsax engineers, forcing them to consider a bridge with a large span over it. Eventually, the construction of this bridge began in mid-November 1934 in the city of Savadkuh, Mazandaran province, by the Danish engineering company Compsax, which won the tender for the bridge's construction, and it was inaugurated on May 5, 1936. Ladislaus von Rabsowicz, the Austrian engineer and chief designer of the Vosk Bridge, stated in an interview with the Information newspaper about this bridge: 'The day I prepared the design for the construction of the Vosk Bridge, other engineers looked at it in astonishment and considered its execution and construction one of the triumphs of engineering science. Now that this bridge has been built, everyone praises me and my colleagues, considering it one of the best and most beautiful engineering masterpieces.' Alongside this Austrian engineer, the supervision of the structural engineers and designers of the bridge was entrusted to Hans Otto Nater, a Swiss engineer who played a role in the design and construction of the Bern railway station in Switzerland. Hans Nater, a mathematical genius and bridge builder, graduated from the Polytechnic University of Zurich (Switzerland), and the calculations for the railway bridges in Iran, including the Vosk Bridge, were carried out by a group of engineers under his supervision. On September 8, 1938, the National Assembly approved the hiring of Hans Nater with a monthly salary of 17,000 rials for one year by the Ministry of Roads. The team of engineers who built the bridge guaranteed this structure for 70 years, yet it still stands today. Despite being 80 years old, the Vosk Bridge is still in operation, and the Iranian railway has several plans for reinforcing this bridge. Youssef Gran Pasha, the director of the northern railway, told IRNA, 'For the implementation of the reinforcement plan for the Vosk Bridge in this region, about 150 billion rials of construction funding has been allocated by the Islamic Republic Railway. The most significant technical problem for the Vosk Bridge is transporting loads over 20 tons. The capacity of this bridge for load passage is about 20 tons, and we allow the passage of Russian wagons that have a capacity of 22.5 tons on this route with balanced loading. Additionally, by installing sensors on this bridge under the supervision of Tehran University of Science and Technology, the vibrational control of this structure is continuously monitored by experts.'