Hi,
On the way back from my short military reserve in Ze’elim I stopped to visit the Ofakim railway bridge, which is near Ofakim (small city in the Negev).
The bridge is a British steel bridge spans over Ofakim stream that was built as part of Rafiah – Beer Sheva railway line that was opened on 30th of July 1918. The line was part of the Railway system that the British has built during the Middle Eastern campaign on WWI.
The railway was completed after the British has conquered Israel, and the line was used for a connection between Israel and Egypt for 9 more years until it was closed due to lack of economic viability.
The bridge is 130m long and up to 12m high, with 8 spans. Two long steel trusses are running between the 1.3 diameter double concrete columns, and holding smaller beams that supports the track. The beams and the trusses are both a maginificent work of rivets.
North of the bridge stands the remains of the temporary railway battery that used to cross the stream between the may 8th till the bridge was completed.
Israel train had suffered during most of the years from low budget, and tere almost no new lines built since the British Mandate time. Only in the last years new lines are built (here and here) One of those is the new lines is the Ashkelon–Beer Sheva railway, running not far away with a station in Ofakim.
The bridge has been renovated as part of Sayeret Shaked Park (an Israeli commando unit operated between 1955 and 1979 along the the border with Egypt. Shaked means almond). On the east side stands a memorial to fallen soldiers of the unit. The place was chosen as it is a main smuggling route between Gaza strip and south mount Hevron. During the time the unit operated, many ambushes has been placed under the bridge.
Take Care
Gad
For pictures of the bridge before the retrofit, you can visit Wikimedia
The sign on the entrance to Sayeret Shaked Park
A look on the bridge
The way to the bridge and the memorial
The truss edge bay
The diagonals of the truss
Looking along the steel truss
Along the bottom of the bridge
Closer look
The transverse beam secondary beam on which the slippers were installed
Magnificat work of rivets
The wood slippers
The wood slippers from above
The renovated bridge
Windows were installed to see the railway structure
The remains of the railway battery north of the bridge
Ofakim stream down below the bridge
and on the other side of the bridge
Sayeret Shaked memorial site
About Sayeret Shaked
New stone plates with the name of the 133 fallen, those looks like tents
more names on the other side
The landscape around the bridge
An older memorial with the names of the fallen that looks like flowers that were cut down
The older sign of the memorial
3 figures with a torch and flags.
The bracing between the bridge columns
A new connection
One of the bridge concrete columns