Eisstraßenbahn

The Eisstraßenbahn was the highway system in Neu Ludwigshafen. The roads were made on permanently frozen lakes and tundras. No artificial paving materials were used in the construction, which consisted of leveling the road surfaces with shovel tractors and filling in holes with snow and water. In the summer of 1696 two roads were constructed, from Neu Ludwigshafen to Felsental, and from Neu Ludwigshafen to Osthügel. A maximum speed of 50 kilometers per hour was maintained on the land-based sections of the Eisstraßenbahn, where the roads go over frozen lakes the maximum speed was 30 kilometers per hour. During the extremely cold winter of 1696, the roads quickly became untraversible, accelerating the downfall of the republic which would not survive that winter.