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Magere Brug was build after a typical Dutch architecture
plan and provided with wooden structure. The bridge was thought
as a balanced one, double-swiped, so that traffic on the river
would not suffer changes.
Nowadays, however, the name of the bridge is no longer justified,
as the bridge was rebuild into a wider one in 1871. Widening
Magere Brug had become a necessity even back in the 19th century,
as traffic on the river and commerce had made it one of the
most accessed ways to the other side of the Amstel.
There are many legends about Magere Brug or, at least, somehow
referring to it. One of them speaks about the way the bridge
got its name. the legend tells that the Mager sisters, living
each on one different side of the Amstel river, needed a way
to visit each other with the least difficulty possible. This
is how Magere Brug is said to have appeared borrowing its
name from the two legendary sisters.
Other tales claim that Magere Brug is called this way due
to its initial narrow architecture. Skinny (mager in Dutch)
was used as a metaphor of the real difficulty of two persons
to walk next to each other on the bridge before its rebuild
in 19th century.
Magere Brug is a kind of a protector of lovers, because once
dark falls, the thousand of lights of the bridge gather lovers
and sweet whispers. The atmosphere is unique and emanates
poetry.
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