In September 1860, the section master builder Küll asks Amtmann Kaiser in Serkenrode for permission to work on the construction site on Sundays. He justifies this with the advanced season and the necessity to close the vaults before the onset of frost. The bailiff, who does not want to mess with any of the higher powers, neither earthly nor heavenly, first asks the district administrator in Meschede and that takes time, but sends the increasingly impatient master builder a letter peppered with a lot of administrative gibberish and pleasantries with the request to continue to wait.
But he is a practitioner and knows how to help himself, as evidenced by the letter in the files: To Mr. Amtmann Kayser, Zu Serkenrode: "To date, I have not yet received a promise or any other resolution to my requests to be allowed to work on the local bridge construction site during Sundays. In view of the urgency of the work, however, I have no hesitation in allowing work to be done on the aforementioned construction site as early as today, and I request Your Worshipfulness to make any complaint or report that may be received by the local police office regarding this matter solely my responsibility. Lenhausen, September 23, 1860.
The section master builder (signature:) Küll. Then comes the answer from Meschede: The circumstances are not such that working on Sundays and holidays can be permitted. It is not clear from the files whether or how the differences of opinion regarding the bridge construction are further resolved. In any case, the Sections master builder Küll and his men did a great job. The bridge will not have to be fundamentally renovated until 140 years later and will then be able to serve its purpose for many years to come.
The municipality of Finnentrop wanted to place the arched bridge over the Lenne, which was built in 1860, under a preservation order in 1986. The procedure lasted a whole five years until the entry in the monument file was made in 1991: "The bridge is a double-track ashlar masonry bridge consisting of 4 segmental arches and resting on stream piers and a path culvert. Blind oculi divide the spandrels above the piers. The parapet is set off from the substructure by a bulbous cornice. On both sides near the bridgeheads, polygonally broken pulpits with brick parapets divide the masonry in the vertical. The actual bridge railing is a simple bar lattice. The structure, which was built early for Südwestfalen, documents in the development of bridge construction the architectural form of the first half of the 19th century, which still adhered to historicism, in transition to the pure engineering form of the subsequent period.... The bridge documents an important construction achievement of railroad construction from the beginnings of railroad history in Südwestfalen. In addition, the object shapes the valley of the Lenne in a striking way. For the preservation and use are scientific, especially economic-railroad, and architectural-historical reasons. ..."
In 2000, a basic renovation of the bridge became necessary, for which the railroad made demands that changed the appearance of the structure. In response to the objection of the Westphalian Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments that it was in favor of renovation without external changes, the railroad pointed out that the measure could be carried out without the approval of the authorities for the preservation of historical monuments; the railroad did not require permits for work on its facilities. (Author: Wolf-Dieter Grün)
An article on the construction of the Ruhr-Sieg line and the events in the community of Finnentrop can be found at: http: //www.heimatbund-finnentrop.de/historie/ruhr-sieg-strecke.pdf (Author: Wolf-Dieter Grün)