Disputed
bridge building
As Berlin’s economy developed in the 19th century, the population and traffic grew rapidly. The private railway companies were transporting ever more people and goods. The railway lines had a significant impact on the city: from 1840 onwards, the main line of the Berlin-Potsdam-Magdeburger Eisenbahn ran southbound from Potsdamer Bahnhof. In 1841, it was joined by the Berlin-Anhaltische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft with its Anhalter Bahnhof. The Dresdener railway line opened in 1875 with the smaller Dresdener Bahnhof, which was the only station south of the Landwehrkanal. The tracks of all three railway companies quickly expanded around today’s Yorckbrücken. They conflicted with the “Generalszug” master plan that would have had to cross over the ground-level north-south railway tracks. The master plan would have forced the railway companies to invest heavily in land-filling and bridge-building measures. After years of discussion, a compromise was reached whereby the railway tracks were crossed 400 metres further south at a slope in the terrain. The result is the southern deviation of Yorckstrasse that is still visible today. The railway companies agreed to cross over the street without any junctions and built Anhalter Bahnhof on a specially landscaped plateau.