In Wuppertal, children’s dreams of civil engineers are (almost) coming true: the city has been the proud owner of a Lego bridge since 2011. In 2020, another one was added.
Lego: for many civil engineers of the younger generation, their vocation may once have begun with the colorful bricks. For them, two bridges in Wuppertal may seem like a reminder of this childlike origin of their work. The two structures in question are not directly made of plastic bricks – even if one had confidence in the structural mechanics, the roadway would probably have been too bumpy – but of reinforced concrete. But they do at least look like Lego. The creator of the Lego design is street artist MEGX. The first bridge has been adorned with the unusual paintwork since 2011. The second crossing received its colorful cinder block look in the summer of 2020.
Lego bridge number one is part of the Wuppertal North Railway, which has been shut down since 1991. It has since been converted into a bicycle and pedestrian path and connects the districts of Elberfeld and Barmen as a bridge over the sister road. The painting, coordinated with the city, took a total of 13 days. The work of art was awarded the promotional prize of the German Façade Award in 2012 as well as the “Outstanding Landmark in the Land of Ideas” award (Culture category) in 2013. MEGX, whose real name is Martin Heuwold, developed his Lego Bridge 2.0 or Rainbow Bridge of 2020 using Photoshop. The colorful structure runs across Dahler Straße as part of the Schwarzbachtrasse, which has also been shut down, and displays the full spectrum of colors.
