Operation Market-Garden was a rare moment in WWII when Gen. Montgomery proposed a particularly bold plan to seize a series of bridges deep into the Netherlands in order to bypass the Siegfried Line. As popularized in the film, the bridge over the Rhine at Arnhem was, indeed, a bridge too far for the relief force, and after several days of fighting the British-Polish forces were wiped out.
The actual bridge that was fought over only existed for a short time, from August to October 1944 - the Nazis had just finished replacing the bridge the Dutch destroyed at the start of the war, and the Americans blew it up after Market-Garden failed. The current bridge is built in the same style and is now named for Maj. John Frost (the John Frostbrug).
The majority of the fighting didn't actually take place in Arnhem, rather in Oosterbeek, closer to where the paratroops and gliders actually landed. The hotel that served as the British HQ is now a museum with an impressive number of artifacts (equipment, weapons, uniforms) and interpretive exhibits. The museum audio guide is narrated by Anthony Beevor, author of multiple books on European history in and around WWII (Craig has read several of them already).
The rest of the day was spent in transit from the Netherlands to Cologne.
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