Alte Brücke
Start on the Alte Brücke, the arch bridge of Neckar sandstone that carries you from the old town across the river to Neuenheim. Its official name is Karl-Theodor-Brücke, after Elector Charles Theodore, who had it built in 1788. Look at the bridge gate at the old town end: it is medieval and far older than the arches you are standing on, a reminder that this crossing was once part of the town's defences.
Old is relative here. The current bridge is the ninth on this spot and rests on the foundations of its predecessors. The nickname only stuck after 1877, when a second bridge, today's Theodor-Heuss-Brücke, was built and this one became the old one.
The history of crossings goes back much further. The Romans built a wooden pile bridge in the first century CE, between today's Neuenheim and Bergheim, and rebuilt it in stone around the year 200. After it collapsed, the area went almost a thousand years without a bridge. One reappears in the records in 1284, placed exactly in line with the marketplace. Until 1460 the far bank belonged to the Electorate of Mainz, so this was a border, and the gate guarded it.
Look closely at the arches. On 29 March 1945 German troops blew up three of them and two pillars; what you see was restored after the war. You can cross for free at any hour. From the far end it is 1150 m, about 22 minutes, to the Philosophenweg. Keep the GPS route open for this leg: the entrance to the path is signposted but easy to miss if you are new to the city.
























