Franz Wahler :
Steel Arch Foot Bridge Near Ybbsitz

Franz Wahler, a young master locksmith from Ybbs, took the initiative to creat a new foot bridge. He has taken an active interest in industrial history and is the owner of the 'Jubiläumsschleife'(anniversary loop) which is a station of the Ybbsitzer forging line at the waterfalls 'in the Noth'. Together with the architect Robert Schwan, he developed a steel foot bridge measuring about 23 meters in width. The construction engineer Alfred Schaufler was responsible for the static and constructive aspects. The bridge is suspended from the spot where one first sees the waterfall. An airy staircase hangs between two Y-shaped diverging trusses curved to form arches. It leads up to the flatly curved vertex where there is a bend in the path before a few steps lead one back down to the ground again. This almost flat area in the middle of the arch invites on to halt and to look. Thus the bridge axis has deliberately been laid out to not run in the shortest direction straight over the gorge but slightly slanting so that the area above the waterfall can be walked through. The bridge is important in a number of respects: in relation to the landscape, given its filigree structure, in the static-constructive conception; in relation to the supportive and functional parts and ultimately also given the fact that as a contemporary construction it is also a product reflecting professional pride and the industrial and archaeological interest of the local artisans. Thus the bridge assumes a certain autonomy in space and time and thus conceals its role as a purely functional construction.
(Walter Zschokke)