In the first half of the nineteenth century, the first railway lines were laid in the Netherlands. The wide rivers such as the Lek posed a problem in this regard. A railway bridge would have to account for fluctuating water levels, drifting ice and should not hinder ships. Engineer Gerrit van Diessen designed a bridge in nine sections. It consisted of seven short sections of about 60 metres above the floodplains and one longer section of 85 metres near the river. The arched bridge over the water was the masterpiece and had a span of no less than 157 metres. No such railway bridge had ever been built anywhere on Earth before. Countless photographs were taken of this impressive industrial architecture using the then-new medium of photography. On 11 August 1868, the bridge was festively opened. Since that day, Culemborg was a city at a crossroads of rail- and waterways.