Memorial

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After penetrating the Siegfried Line, the 9th Armored Division of the U.S. First Army had advanced unexpectedly towards the Rhine. They were very surprised to see one of the last bridges across the Rhine still standing. The German forces there were caught off guard. They had wired the bridge with about 2,800 kilograms (6,200 lb) of demolition charges. When they tried to blow it up, only a portion of the explosives detonated. U.S. forces then captured the first bridgehead across the Rhine, two weeks before Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery's planned Operation Plunder. The 9th Division was there to help capture the bridge and they crossed the bridge into the Rhineland of Germany along with other Allied divisions. The damaged bridge, named the Ludendorf Bridge, collapsed on 17 March 1945 despite Allied engineers using desperate measures to save it. Sadly, several American soldiers were working on the bridge when it fell into the river.