The Liteyny Bridge () is the second permanent bridge across the

Neva river The Neva ( , ; , ) is a river in northwestern Russia flowing from Lake Ladoga through the western part of Leningrad Oblast (historical region of Ingria) to the Neva Bay of the Gulf of Finland. Despite its modest length of , it is the fourth-l ...

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

.Novikov (1991), p. 300 It connects

Liteyny Prospekt Liteyny Avenue (, ''Liteyny prospekt'') is a wide avenue in the Tsentralny District, Saint Petersburg, Central District of Saint Petersburg, Russia. The avenue runs from Liteyny Bridge to Nevsky Avenue. The avenue originated in 1738 when the fo ...

with Vyborgsky district. The bridge's length is 396 meters, the width is 34 meters. At the vicinity of the Liteyny Bridge, the Neva river reaches the maximum depth of 24 meters.

Location

Upstream there is the Bolsheokhtinsky bridge, below the Troitsky bridge and Sampsonievsky bridge (across Bolshaya Nevka). The nearest metro stations are Chernyshevskaya and Lenin Square.

Name

The bridge is named ''Liteyney'' which literally means ''Foundry'' after the

and Liteyny district which in turn were named after the large foundry that was established on the left bank in 1711. In 1879 the bridge was renamed ''Aleksandrovsky'' in name of tzar Alexander II. But this name was never adopted by the public and after the

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

in 1917 the original name ''Liteyny Bridge'' was restored.

History

The ancient maps reveal that even before the city was founded, there was a crossing on the way from Russia to

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

approximately at the location of the modern bridge. At one bank of the river the road from

Novgorod Veliky Novgorod ( ; , ; ), also known simply as Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the oldest cities in Russia, being first mentioned in the 9th century. The city lies along the V ...

ended, and at the other bank the road to

Vyborg Vyborg (; , ; , ; , ) is a town and the administrative center of Vyborgsky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Karelian Isthmus near the head of Vyborg Bay, northwest of St. Petersburg, east of the Finnish capital H ...

started. The decision to build a permanent bridge was made after rough ice destroyed the temporary floating bridge on April 4, 1865. Although similar events had happened in the past, this particular one caused strong reaction from the government, and a special expert commission was created. But it took until 1869 to agree on the location for the bridge. On April 22, 1871 an open contest was declared, and total of 17 proposals were submitted. As a result of the contest, the project under the Vestminster banner was chosen by the city authorities. However, the transport ministry rejected it and created an expert commission of its own and declared the winner to be engineer colonel A. Struve who was one of the members of the commission. The building of the new bridge started on August 30, 1875. The work conditions were difficult, and during the next four years there were two fatal accidents, killing 14 people. The official opening ceremony took place on October 1, 1879. Struve was promoted to the rank of Major General. Soon after the opening, the bridge was equipped with electrical lights - the invention of Russian inventor Pavel Yablochkov. It was the first bridge to get electrical lighting and for the long time it remained the only one, since the monopoly of gas producers in city opposed it.

References

External links

"''Liteyny Bridge''", 1982
by Alexander Semionov at STVBACCHUS Album
Liteyny Bridge page
on the website o
Mostotrest
Saint Petersburg Bridge Trust

Liteyny Bridge in art

* "''Liteyny Bridge''", 1982, by Leningrad artist Alexander Mikhailovich Semionov (1922 - 1984) {{Crossings navbox , structure = Bridges , place =

Neva River The Neva ( , ; , ) is a river in northwestern Russia flowing from Lake Ladoga through the western part of Leningrad Oblast (historical region of Ingria) to the Neva Bay of the Gulf of Finland. Despite its modest length of , it is the fourth-l ...

, bridge = Liteyny Bridge , bridge signs = , upstream =

Peter the Great Bridge Bolsheokhtinsky Bridge (, before 1917 - Peter the Great Bridge, , ''Most Petra Velikogo''; from 1917 to 1956 - Bolsheokhtensky Bridge, ; also known as Okhtinsky Bridge, ) is a bridge across the Neva River in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The bridge ...

, upstream signs = , downstream = Trinity Bridge , downstream signs = Bridges in Saint Petersburg Bridges completed in 1879 Cultural heritage monuments of regional significance in Saint Petersburg