Bridges
The Palace Bridge
Although it is only a 20th century creation, Palace Bridge is undoubtedly one of the most famous sights
of St. Petersburg, and is quite literally unmissable for most visitors to the city, who will find themselves
continually using the bridge to move between Palace Square, home to the Winter Palace and the Hermitage
Museum, and the numerous historic attractions on Vasilevskiy Ostrov.
Despite the grandeur and extravagance of the surrounding architecture, Palace Bridge itself is a
relatively simple structure, comprising five cast-iron spans resting on granite-clad, packed-rubble piers.
Height of the bridge was strictly limited, so as not to obstruct the view of the monuments around.
The central span of the bridge splits into two wings, which are raised through an angle of over 45° to
allow ships to pass up the Neva River, and the view of the golden spire of the Ss. Peter and Paul Cathedral
between the two raised wings is one of the most widespread and memorable images of St. Petersburg.
It also makes Palace Embankment the centre of nightly celebrations during the White Nights, when
thousands of locals and visitors gather to watch Palace Bridge open in the small hours.
The history of Palace Bridge dates back to 1901, when a competition for designs for a permanent bridge
at the site was announced.
Until then, this vital link between two of the oldest sections of the city had been furnished by boat
or by a pontoon bridge 50 meters downstream, a legacy of Peter the Great's interdict on bridge-building in
his new capital (he believed this would encourage the population to become competent sailors).
It took eight years for the jury to choose a winner. They opted for designs presented by Andrey
Pshensitsky, a recent graduate of the St. Petersburg Institute of Communications Engineering.
Celebrated Art Nouveau designer and artist Roman Meltzer was commissioned to design the bridge's
architectural decorations, and construction eventually began in 1912.
The onset of the First World War severely interfered with the completion of the project, and the
eventual opening of Palace Bridge in 1916 was a discrete affair, with most of the decorative elements of the
designs incomplete.
It was not until 1939, by which time the bridge had been renamed Republican Bridge, that the ornate
cast-iron railings and lampposts, the lion sculptures and the bridge's pavilions were eventually completed.
The bridge's original name was returned in 1944, and Palace Bridge has since been fully restored
several times since, most recently in 1997. The bridge now carries over 30,000 cars a day, and is the site
of some of St. Petersburg's heaviest traffic jams.
Nonetheless, views from the bridge - of the Winter Palace, of the Peter and Paul Fortress, and of the
rows of palatial buildings along both banks of the Neva - are some of the most impressive in the city.
Anichkov Bridge
Anichkov Bridge is one of the architectural highlights of Nevsky Prospekt, and essential viewing for any
visitor to St. Petersburg, both for the spectacular views of the surrounding palaces from the vantage point
of its humped back, and for the famous sculptures - the Horse Tamers - that crown its four corners.
Carrying Nevsky Prospekt across the Fontanka River, the first Anichkov Bridge was a wooden structure
erected as early as 1716. Its name honors the engineer of that first bridge, Mikhail Anichkov. In the 1780s,
a series of almost identical stone bascule bridges were built across the Fontanka, and Anichkov Bridge was
one of them - Lomonosov Bridge is the most famous to have survived intact. There are numerous historic
pictures of Anichkov Bridge in this period, and the bridge was a popular attraction thanks to its central
location.
By the 1840s, however, Anichkov Bridge, with its four towers housing the raising mechanism, was unable
to cope with the ever-increasing volumes of traffic along Nevsky Prospekt, and the decision was taken
broaden the bridge, making it a similar width to the avenue itself. The result was the modern bridge,
although it had to be fundamentally reconstructed in 1906-1908 due to structural flaws in the arches.
A simple but elegant structure, Anichkov Bridge consists of three arched spans faced with pink granite,
and measures 54.6 meters. To decorate the bridge, cast-iron railings were installed to a design by Karl
Friedrich Schinkel for Berlin's Palace Bridge. They have ornate symmetrical designs featuring mermaids and
fantastical seahorses.
The most striking decorations on Anichkov Bridge, however, are the Horse Tamers by Pyotr Klodt, who
also sculpted the equestrian statue of Nicholas I on St. Isaac's Square, and the quadriga above the portico
of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. These beautiful bronze cast proved so popular that copies of the sets at
the eastern end of the bridge, installed in 1841, were sent as Imperial gifts to Frederick William IV of
Prussia and to the City of Naples within a decade.
The sculptures at the western end were erected in 1850. During the Siege of Leningrad, the sculptures were
removed and buried in the grounds of the Anichkov Palace nearby. Thus, unlike the bridge, they survived the
war intact. All damage was repaired, however, and the statues were restored to their rightful place on 1 May
1945, a week before victory was declared.
The Bank Bridge
Just a few minutes' walk down the Griboedov Canal from Nevsky Prospekt and Kazan Cathedral, St. Petersburg's
Bank Bridge is one of the world's most beautiful pedestrian bridges, thanks to the glorious sculptures of
golden-winged griffons by famous local sculptor Pavel Sokolov.
At 1.85 meters, it is also the narrowest in the city, a miniature architectural gem.
The bridge takes its name from the Assignation Bank, one of Russia's first public banks, which was housed in
the beautiful neoclassical mansion next to the bridge, now home, appropriately, to the St. Petersburg State
University of Economics and Finance.
Like many of the bridges across the Griboedov Canal, Bank Bridge was built in 1825-26 to a design by
German-born engineer Wilhelm Von Traitteur.
v Like the nearby Lions Bridge, the Bank Bridge is a small pedestrian suspension bridge, whose innovative
design hides the bridge's supports inside elegant sculptures.
The deck of Bank Bridge is wooden, keeping the structure relatively light, and it has been replaced
several times in nearly two centuries. As well as the griffons, Bank Bridge features beautiful cast-iron
railings, notable for their ornate, palm-frond design.
The original railings were removed at the beginning of the 20th century, and the current railings were
installed in 1952, recreated from the original designs.
The griffons, which are unquestionably the main attraction of the bridge, are one example of numerous
monumental sculptures in St. Petersburg by Pavel Sokolov.
Sokolov was a graduate of the Imperial Academy of Art, who was most famous for his sculpture Milkmaid
with Broken Pitcher in the Catherine Park at Tsarskoe Selo until, in 1825, he was commissioned to design not
only the griffons for Bank Bridge, but also the lion statues for the Lions Bridge, and the sphinxes for the
Egyptian Bridge.
All of these sculptural ensembles have become emblems of St. Petersburg, and the griffons, with their
strict classical form augmented by golden wings and beautiful curved golden lamp brackets, may be the finest
of them.
Trinity Bridge
The Trinity (Troitsky) Bridge was opened in 1903 as part of the celebrations of St. Petersburg's 200th
anniversary. It was the third permanent bridge, after Blagoveshchenskiy Bridge and Liteiniy Bridge, to be
laid across the River Neva, running form just north of the Field of Mars on the left bank of the river to
the Petrograd Side next to the Peter and Paul Fortress.
Measuring 582 meters, it is the second longest bridge in the city, one of the busiest, and also one of
the most beautiful thanks to its spectacularly ornate Art Nouveau design.
There was a clear need for a permanent bridge in this area from the early 19th century, but it was not
until 1892 that a tender was announced for designs.
The competition attracted international attention, and the initial winner was the company of Gustave
Eiffel, the engineer of Paris's most famous landmark, who had won his early fame designing state-of-the-art
railway bridges.
Although Eiffel was awarded the princely prize of 6,000 roubles, his design was subsequently ignored in
favour of another French company, the Batignolles Building Company.
It was another five years before construction began, with the first stone laid on 12 August 1897, at a
ceremony attended by Nicholas II and Felix Faure, the incumbent President of France. The lengthy building
process was accompanied by rumours of financial scandal, but the bridge was nonetheless completed on time,
and Nicholas II was again present to witness the first official raising of the bridge in the late spring of
1903.
The new bridge was worth the wait. It has a total of nine spans - three stone spans closest to the
right bank, five fixed steel spans and one bascule steel span adjacent to the left bank. The original
opening system featured two symmetrical wings, but was replaced in 1967 by a single 43-meter rising wing.
The bridge's elegant, low outline is complemented by a wealth of decoration, including beautiful tripod
streetlamps, curving cast-iron railings and granite obelisks topped with two-headed Imperial eagles, which
in its opulence recalls Paris's Pont Alexandre III.
The bridge's name refers to the Trinity Cathedral, which once stood by the river on the Petrograd Side.
The name was changed to Bridge of Equality in 1918, and the Cathedral was destroyed soon after. In 1934, the
bridge was renamed to honor Sergei Kirov, revolutionary and Bolshevik leader of Petrograd. The original name
was only restored in 1999.
