A kwakel is a narrow, high fixed footbridge, usually over a ditch or canal, with a handrail on both sides and built high enough for a boat carrying hay, vegetables or peat to pass underneath. Because headroom for the boat was the governing requirement, the bridge was given a steep slope, with steps or a ribbed walking surface on each side.
The word comes from Middle Dutch, where it meant “a narrow and high little stepped bridge”. The village of De Kwakel in North Holland takes its name from this type of bridge.
Two forms
- Fixed kwakel — the best known form: a timber or steel walkway on two abutments or on piles, with a steeply rising and falling deck
- Lifting version — a simple lifting bridge with only one balance beam, from which a yoke hangs on chains to raise the deck
Why the shape is what it is
The kwakel is a textbook example of a structure governed entirely by one requirement: headroom for navigation. Because a fixed bridge cannot open, the deck had to sit high enough above the water for the boat passing beneath. With a narrow ditch and a short span, that means a steep slope.
Characteristic features:
- Narrow deck — often no wider than about a metre; intended for pedestrians only
- Handrails on both sides — essential because of the slope and the height
- Slip resistance — cross battens or ribbed boards, because the slope is slippery in the wet
- Light construction — timber, later also steel, because the abutments stand in soft peat ground
Where they can still be found
Kwakels are found mainly in the Dutch peat meadow districts and in old market gardening areas, where transport went by water and every house was connected to the road by its own little bridge. Many surviving kwakels are listed as local monuments.
Related terms
- Bridge
- Lifting bridge
- Abutment
- Headroom
- Handrail
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