Monumental bridges route in the Amsterdam Forest (all bridges)

In 2013, the municipality of Amstelveen decided to designate 53 bridges in the Amsterdam Forest as municipal monuments. The GPS routes described below take you along these monumental bridges.

The Amsterdam Forest is a man-made forest three times the size of Central Park in New York City. It was created as an unemployment relief program during the crisis in the 1930s, providing work for over 20,000 people. Because the Second World War interrupted the work, the construction of the forest lasted until 1970.

Most of the bridges that received monumental status were designed by the Dutch architect Piet Kramer (1881-1961), one of the most important architects of the expressionist architecture style “Amsterdam School”. Not less than 220 bridges designed by Piet Kramer were realized, and about 65 of them are in the Amsterdam Forest.

During the beginning of his career, Piet Kramer worked at the office of architect Eduard Cuypers, a cousin of the famous architect Pierre Cuypers who designed the Central Station and Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. The church “Urbanus kerk” in Amstelveen (Bovenkerk), near the start of the southern walking route was also designed by Pierre Cuypers.

Many of the bridges that Piet Kramer designed between 1937-1957 for the Amsterdam Forest are made of wood. The bridges have a peculiar design and are especially notable for the railings. By running the railings onto the banks and flaring them out widely, the bridges are made to appear larger. Every bridge is different. The bridges that had to carry heavy traffic are made of concrete. Due to their rigid, elegant thin railings these concrete bridges still fit well in the rustic forest environment.

There are several bridges that make use of iron balls to operate them. By pulling the uppermost ball the bridge can be opened, while the balls provide the counterweight. The design of the other parts of the ball bridges is very plain, focusing all attention on the balls.

The bridges around the rowing course and the open air theater could all be raised or have a gate, in order to close off the entrances to these attractions.

All bridges in Amsterdam are numbered. The monumental bridges in the Amsterdam Forest have numbers between 504 and 592. The bridges and their numbers are indicated in the GPS files as waypoints. Three walking routes are available that take you along the bridges. Note that a few of the monumental bridges are just next to the walking route, but you do not cross them. You can download the GPS files by following the links below:

MONUMENTAL BRIDGES NORTH (14 km) takes you along the 36 monumental bridges north of the highway A9, see http://www.gpsies.com/map.do?fileId=tnpjbbnkkzdsmxat


MONUMENTAL BRIDGES SOUTH (9 km) connects 19 monumental bridges in the south part of the forest, see http://www.gpsies.com/map.do?fileId=cmruixactnniwzsk


ALL MONUMENTAL BRIDGES (22 km) is a combination of the two walks and visits all 53 monumental bridges, see http://www.gpsies.com/map.do?fileId=epyrrqazbdqpmkom


The start of the NORTH and ALL BRIDGES walks is located at the main entrance of the Amsterdam Forest, at the Van Neijenrode weg. Here you can also find the Boswinkel (Forest Shop) where you can get more information about the Amsterdam Forest ( http://www.amsterdamsebos.nl/english/ ). Food and drinks are available at Grand Cafe De Bosbaan ( http://www.debosbaan.nl/ ). You can use the address “Bosbaanweg 5, Amstelveen” for your navigation system. There is a large free parking.

The start of the SOUTHERN walk is in Amstelveen (Bovenkerk), near the church Urbanus-kerk and cafe/restaurant Silversant ( http://www.silversant.nl/ ). Note that cafe Silversant is closed on Saturdays. You can use the address “Noorddammerlaan 119, Amstelveen” for your navigation system. There is free parking.

The start of the NORTH and ALL MONUMENTAL bridges routes can conveniently be reached with a 30 min bus ride (bus 170, 172 or 174) from Amsterdam Central Station. The start of the SOUTHERN walk can be reached with bus 199 from Schiphol Airport (30 min) or with bus 170+171 or 172 from Amsterdam Central station (50 min). See http://9292.nl/en# for for detailed descriptions or when starting from another location.

Some small parts of the routes may get a bit muddy after wet periods. However, most of the trail is asphalt or gravel, and the routes therefore can be walked throughout the year.

You can download a PDF file with information about Piet Kramer and the bridges at the link below. The PDF contains scanned pages of the book that accompanied an exposition about the bridges of Piet Kramer in the Stedelijk Museum in 1995 (English/Dutch). In addition, the PDF contains the official document that was used to obtain monumental status for the bridges, with very detailed descriptions, maps and pictures of the 53 monumental bridges (in Dutch): http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=06735634123825367985

Note that Wikiloc only allows up to 25 waypoints, so you better download the GPS files from the GPSies.com links!