Pont sur la gorge du Salgina

TLDR I really liked this bridge and Philip has already covered the relevant practical and historical details below. I was fortunate that he offered to be my guide over a weekend to eastern Switzerland (and bits of Germany and Liechtenstein too) and can say I am in full agreement with all his points. So the best I can offer is my own journey from finding this bridge ugly and boring to thinking it should be inscribed as a masterpiece of human creative genius.

What makes something beautiful?

After a couple of decades of thinking about it, I’m pretty comfortable knowing that there isn’t really such a thing as objective beauty, rather we regularly arrive at things we can agree on as being pleasing mostly based on habit and convention. 

This is something I have been thinking about a lot since my visit to the Salgina bridge. I remember as a 16 year old first seeing pictures in a library book of this bridge and others by Robert Maillart, and being somewhat aghast (in the way only a teenager could be) that something so boring was being treated as something beautiful.
But it stuck with me, would I ever really be able to understand what was beautiful about it?

If you had caught me in my 20s I could’ve recited some sort of academic argument for this bridge being important or attractive, but I wouldn’t have believed it. I would merely just be repeating what I had …

What on first sight looks like a random bridge, is actually an important architectural masterpiece. The Salginatobel Bridge is one of the most important reinforced concrete arch bridges in the world. Built by Swiss architect Robert Maillard and finished 1930, the bridge is recognized by architects and designers around the globe. 1991 it made it to the “World Monuments” list (much more exclusive than the WHS list. 2001 the bridge – design and engineering magazine (yes, there is a magazine for that) voted it the "bridge of the century". It might have an underwhelming look for the non-professional eye, but it sure has outstanding universal value.

When we arrived at the bridge it was clear, that the bridge is not aiming for an inscription very soon. It is well sign posted from the high way. Leave at Landquart and drive through the village of Schiers. The parking for the walk way is sign posted as well. The street between Schiers and the parking is, highly unusual for Switzerland, unpaved. The path (40mins walking for the round trip) is not very well maintained. It partially leads along the street and crosses the bridge. You need to hope for no traffic while you cross the bridge, at it very narrow and allows only one car to pass through at the time. The view is mostly restricted by trees. The ideal picture is taken from a viewing platform below the bridge. When we visited (APR 20) however, the platform was closed for …