The Geul Valley bridge was built during the First World War, at a time when, since 1914, Belgium had been under German military occupation. It was built to support the strategic objective of being able to move troops and artillery rapidly between Aachen and Antwerp. More recently, by the 1990s it had fallen into such disrepair that trains crossing it were restricted to a maximum speed of 20 km/h (12 mph). During the early years of the twenty-first century, however, the bridge was extensively reconstructed and restored.