Remagen Bridge Memorial

Here follows an excerpt from the Atlas Obscura website:

Remagan Bridge
Fort Belvoir, Virginia
A piece of the Ludendorff Bridge, also known as Remagan Bridge, calls this military base home.

Fort Belvoir surrounds a piece of pier from the Remagen Bridge in Germany.

In 1945, the German Army tried to destroy the bridge, but it was captured by United States Army. After U.S. forces captured the bridge, the German military tried to destroy it multiple times.

It finally collapsed in March 1945, ten days after it was captured. Twenty-eight Army engineers were killed in the collapse, while another 63 were injured. This piece stands as a memorial to that sacrifice.

The plaque to the left reads:
FORT BELVOIR
Once part of Colonel William Fairfax's estate, this 1500 acre tract served as an Engineer replacement training site during World War I. Called Camp Humphreys since 1917,it became the permanent installation home of the Engineer School and was redesignated as Fort Humphreys in 1922 and as Fort Belvoir in 1935. Thousands of Engineer officers and soldiers have trained at the U.S. Army Engineer Center and School, Fort Belvoir for duty in World War II, the Korean Conflict, and the Vietnam Conflict. The U.S. Army Center and School was relocated to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri in 1990.

The plaque to the right reads:
REMAGEN BRIDGE
Stone taken from one of the piers supporting the historic Ludendorf Bridge which once spanned the Rhine River at Remagen, Germany. The mayor of Remagen donated it to the U.S. Army Engineer Center in July 1978.

Charges set by the retreating enemy in March 1945 failed to destroy the bridge. Under heavy artillery fire, combat engineers of Company B, 9th Armored Engineer Battalion, reinforced the damaged bridge, enabling trucks, tanks, and trains to cross. Within 24 hours, more than 8,000 U.S. troops were across the Rhine. The Remagen crossing helped shorten the war and clearly showed the importance of the Engineers as part of the combat team.