Zollenbrücke, Hamburg

Zollenbrücke in Hamburg is a bridge built in 1633 over the former Fleet of Gröningerstraße. Located on Nikolaifleet in the old town, it is the oldest surviving bridge in the city area and has been a listed building since 1954.

A predecessor building was first mentioned in 1355 as Zollenbrücke. The name referred to the nearby customs house for the Schauenburg customs, a kind of transit duty, levied on foreigners and introduced by the city lords of the Schauenburg counts. The customs house was demolished after the cessation of customs in 1806. Older names were Brücke bei der Waage and Krahnbrücke in reference to the city scales and crane there.

The bridge originally led over the Gröningerstraßenfleet, which branches off eastward here from Nikolaifleet, was filled in with rubble after World War II and disappeared except for a few meters with the construction of Ost-West-Straße and Domstraße in the 1950s. It connected the streets Brodschrangen and Bei der alten Börse to the north and northwest, with Grimm Street to the south of it and Gröninger Street, also on Grimm Island, which ran parallel to the Fleet and disappeared with the new road construction.

The 25-meter-long bridge structure with its three arches of different sizes is made of sandstone ashlars. Above a pier on the Nikolaifleet side, the large Hamburg coat of arms can be seen in stone. The railings and lanterns date from the 19th century, during which the bridge was also widened with iron brackets projecting from the sides, which were removed again after World War II. Since 1953, the bridge has been authorized only as a pedestrian bridge.