Opened in 1936-37, the ReichsAutoBahn 3 Elbing-Königsberg was one of the earliest stretches of the German Autobahn. It connected two major cities in East Prussia.
On the south-western end, it was planned to be extended to Danzig, and then through the Polish Corridor to Pomerania and the rest of Germany. Polish opposition to this was one of the contributing factors to the outbreak of war in 1939.
On the north-eastern end it was planned to be extended:
Neither of these stretches was actually built, except for the large four-lane concrete bridge across the Old and New Pregel, east of the city.
Interestingly, on its northern end the bridge now connects with a flyover across the current Russian A229 highway to the east. This road has also been conceived and (partially) built as a four-lane Autobahn, with some actual four-lane stretches, many of the earthworks for the flyovers (though without most of the actual bridges) and in particular near Taplacken/Talpaki some especially grandiose lay-out for a future Three-Fork to Tilsitten/Sovietsk. This all looks more like German than Soviet design, but on the other hand the German plan was for a more southerly route, south of the river Pregel.
In 1937 the entire Elbing – Königsberg stretch was open to traffic, although two-lane only.
After the war,the northern half fell under Russian, the southern under Polish administration. Neither of these countries had much use for it. Besides, on the Polish section some major bridges had been blown up, which would have cost much to repair. No border crossing was built. On the Polish side, the road was of local use from Elbing/Elblag to the Braunsberg/Braniewo exit. On the Russian side, it wasn't even of any local use: here all the flyovers were demolished and used as building material.
After the fall of Communism plans were made towards reconstruction. On the Russian side some new tarmac was laid, while on the Polish side some bridges were rebuilt. Then everything stopped again due to lack of funds, with each side accusing the other of making too little progress.
Part of the eastern Ring, the so-called Berlin Bridge crosses the two arms of the Pregel river near the village of Palmburg/Pribreznoe. It had not actually been directly connected with the Berlin Autobahn yet. Blown-up at the end of the war, only the eastern two lanes have been repaired.
This bridge over the Klingbeck Gorge is clearly in need of repair. It is now likely the European Union will pay for new bridges.
There is hardly any traffic along the entire stretch of the Autobahn on Kaliningrad Territory. Here, as elsewhere, the flyover has disappeared (some rubble can still vaguely be seen on the right). The eastern lane still has its original concrete surface, only locally repaired, while the western lane has never been built (sandy stretch on the left).
To the north, one sees the Klingbeck Forest. Some 15 Kilometres further south-west the road ends at the Border.
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