Cologne is the fourth-largest city in Germany - and one of the oldest. A Germanic tribe, the Ubii, had a settlement here, this was named by the Romans "Oppidum Ubiorum". In 50 AD, the Romans founded "Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium", the city then became the provincial capital of "Germania Inferior".

The Severinsbrücke is a cable-stayed bridge was built from 1956 to 1959. It was Cologne´s first "new" bridge after WWII. It is 691 metres long and 29,50 metres wide. The steel is coated with chrome green colour, named "Kölner Brückengrün" ("Cologne-Brdige-Green"). Four of the eight bridges that cross the Rhine in Cologne are coated with "Kölner Brückengrün".