Collapse of the Carola Bridge in Dresden Part 1: From the ambitious design to the tragic partial collapse. September 11, 2024 will not only be remembered by the bridge construction community in Germany. The partial collapse of a prestressed concrete bridge without prior notice rightly made waves throughout society. The bridge in question is the Dresden Carola Bridge – an aesthetic and extremely slender structure that is justifiably regarded by experts as an engineering icon of its time, whose design and construction would still be a challenge under today's conditions. This first part of the article summarizes the history of the bridge's genesis, its design and construction, and presents the measures taken to maintain and renovate the structure. The second part, an attempt will be made to reconstruct the collapse process, and the search for the collapse causes will be described. In addition, the current monitoring will be discussed and an outlook on possible further action will be given.