Berg also can mean 'mountain', but that description seems too generous here.
Berg en Dal (literally Hill and Dale) on the German border near Beek not far from Nijmegen became a tourist attraction at the end of the 19th century. Hotel Groot Berg en Dal was opened in 1869 and around 1900 the villa Mooi Nederland was built, partly in chalet style. In 1909 it was decided to extend line 2 of the Nijmegen municipal trams to Beek, further to Berg en Dal.
A height difference of about 100 meters was involved from Beek. A reinforced concrete viaduct was built in 1912, on which the tram line crossed itself with a loop. This tram line, the steepest in the Netherlands, was completed in 1913.
At the end of the 1930s, the Nijmegen city council decided to replace trams (a system length of 17.8 km in cape gauge) with trolleybuses . But it would take until 1955 until the last tram ran and the 'Bergspoor' was also closed. The viaduct became a pedestrian bridge but was demolished in 1969 under protest.
Video (in Dutch)
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