The Maas bridge near Gennep was opened in 1873 as a railway bridge. For a while, the Maasbridge was an important link in international train traffic. When the Germans invaded the Netherlands in May 1940, the Dutch failed to blow up the bridge. The Germans laid planks between the rails and moved over the bridge with military vehicles. When the Allied troops advanced four years later, the retreating Germans blew up the bridge behind them. After the liberation of Gennep, on February 12, 1945, English engineers immediately started building a new railway bridge on the pillars of the old one. A pontoon bridge was also built. Due to the high water level of the Maas at the time, it became the longest Bailey Bridge built during the Second World War.
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