Nordal Bridge
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We are now approaching Nordal bridge. It was originally built as a military destruction point from where the railway could be cut in the event of a threat from the East. The bridge was prefabricated in Germany and all the pillars were transported by horse from Rombaksbotn in the winter of 1902. The top modules for the railway were shipped to Narvik and were transported further by train. The Nordal bridge was later reinforced and repaired after a train derailment in 1975. Later, there was a need to replace the bridge due to its age, and at that point it was decided to resect the railway instead. So, in 1988 the railway route was resected and today the old bridge is a cultural monument. In total over a billion tonnes of ore have been transported over this impressive edifice. The Norwegian forces who made their way out of Narvik on the 9th April 1940 tried to blow up the bridge but they didn’t have enough explosives. The few explosives they did have only caused minor damage which was quickly repaired. The Norwegian forces were deployed on the north side of the bridge to prevent a German advance, but when the Germans acquired long range automatic weapons and reinforcements from Bjerkvik the Norwegian defence was too small and had to retreat to Bjørnfjell. In the period before the 16th April 1940 there were also many civilians fleeing Narvik who crossed over the bridge even though it was damaged, many of them went on to become refugees in Sweden.