Eiker history
Magazine drive on "Sölvveien"
The transportation of goods between Bragernes and Kongsberg is often called "warehouse transportation". In reality, this transportation took place both on land and by water. The actual transportation was carried out by "reeders" in rowboats and drivers with horses and carts. Along the river and the road there were transport stations, guesthouses and inns where both the transport workers and other travelers could quench their thirst and get food and shelter. This is where goods were probably also bought and sold to the local population, at a time when there were no country stores. All the traffic also provided work for craftsmen such as boat builders, blacksmiths, wheelwrights and shoemakers.
In the latter half of the 18th century, the mining town of Kongsberg had around 8,000 inhabitants and was Norway’s second largest city – smaller than Bergen, but larger than Christiania. The local agriculture could not feed such a large population, and the miners and their families were completely dependent on a regular supply of grain and other foodstuffs. This gave great power to a small group of “suppliers”, who had the exclusive right to run this profitable business. Together with the top management at the Silver Works, they constituted the upper class in Kongsberg.
The grain and other imported goods destined for Kongsberg came to Drammen - which actually consisted of two separate trading posts - Bragernes and Strømsø. The large warehouse of the silver works was located at Øvre Sund in Bragernes until 1786, when a new and larger warehouse was built on Strømsø. From here the goods were to be transported to the warehouse in Kongsberg - today known as "Magasinparken". This was the origin of the term "Magasinkjørsel", and the transport went through Eiker.
Although a road had been built all the way to Bragernes as early as the 1620s, much of the traffic was carried out on the river, especially the transport of heavier goods. The "Røyertene" were a separate professional group, who rowed "big boats" up the river to Haugsund. Some goods were transferred to horses and carts at the Langebru transport station near Haug Church, but much was also transported by boat to Vestfossen and sometimes all the way to Rudstøa in Fiskum. However, the last leg through Kongsbergskogen had to be covered by horse and cart. This was by far one of the country's most important transport arteries.
"The Silver Road" is a name that this road has been given in recent times. Originally, it was often called "The King's Road", but also "The Post Road", since there was a fixed postal route here with important correspondence between the management of the Silver Works and the central administration in Copenhagen. Today, several new and larger roads have been built between Drammen and Kongsberg, but at the end of the 18th century, the route was largely the same as when the road was built in the 1620s. Maintenance and improvements were carried out, however. One of the most important was the construction of stone arch bridges, which probably replaced older wooden bridges. The largest and most important was Smedbrua, which was built in 1767 by stonemasons from the Silver Works, where the road crosses the Fiskumelva River. Smaller bridges of the same type were built at Skogen and at Brekke on Nedre Eiker. Today, these bridges are protected as cultural monuments.