F60 Overburden Conveyor Bridge

It is longer than the Eiffel Tower is tall, and it was built for a life in the mine that lasted barely eighteen months. The F60 conveyor bridge near Lichterfeld in southern Brandenburg is 502 metres long, up to 80 metres high and 240 metres wide. Machines of this type are considered the largest movable working machines in the world. At the F60 visitor mine, a guide leads you up stairs and walkways to a viewing platform 74 metres up, overlooking a lake that used to be an open-cast mine.

History: the last steel giant

An overburden conveyor bridge strips away the earth above the lignite and moves it across the pit; "F60" refers to the original 60 metres of overburden it could remove. TAKRAF in Lauchhammer built five of them, and this is the last. Assembled from 1989, it started work on 5 February 1991 and stopped on 30 June 1992, when the mine was closed after reunification, having moved some 27 million cubic metres of earth. Instead of being scrapped it became a symbol of change in Lusatia and is now an anchor point of the European Route of Industrial Heritage. The old pit flooded to form Lake Bergheide. Three sister machines are still working; the one at Jänschwalde was blown up in February 2026.

What to expect

• Standard tour: about 90 minutes on secured walkways up to the lookout at 74 m.
• Light and sound installation: artist Hans Peter Kuhn traced the bridge with some 2,100 metres of optical fibre, switched on after dark during opening hours.
• "Special shift" tour: about two hours including the control room, €25.

Hours and prices (as of October 2026)

16 March to 31 October: Tuesday to Sunday 10:00–18:00, last tour 17:00; expect 20–45 minutes' wait. 1 November to 15 March: Wednesday to Sunday 11:00–16:00, tours at 11:30, 13:00 and 14:30. Tour €16, reduced €13, children 6–15 €7.50, under 6 free.

Tripto tip

Not for severe vertigo; wear sturdy shoes and a windproof jacket. From late October to February it gets dark during opening hours, so the last tour shows the bridge lit up. Allow two to three hours.