Moscow bridges
In such city as Moscow, the city, appeared in junction of two meandering rivers,
crossing its whole territory, and the great role belongs to quays. Not by chance
they say that soul of a city is its bridges – poetic people’s works, in which
engineering calculation is organically alloyed with harmony of architectural
forms. Many these grandiose constructions have many-century history.
The oldest bridge – Lefortovsky – was built in 1777 and the bridge at the
Cathedral of Christ the Savior was recently 1 years old. The Dvortsoviy bridge
is the first stone bridge across the Yauza, which was built in 1779 in
connection with building the palace of Catherine II in Lefortovo, very close to
the river. The bridge was projected by architecture S. Yakovlev.
The Borodinsky bridge, which was built in 1912 by project of architecture R.
Klein by a centenary of the Borodinskaya battle and rout of Napoleon’s army.
Severe and harmonious forms of the entrance propylaea in the spirit of Russian
classicism are made of grey granite with bronze armors. With the aim to
intensify this effect the entries into the side granite staircases and bridge
piers were made in form of fighting bastions. Construction of the metrobridge
speeded up reconstruction of Smolenskaya quay, about which in 1938 one of
researchers wrote: “…ways to the bridge are pressed by plain old
pre-revolutionary buildings, creating dissonance with the architecture of the
bridge”. It was decorated in 1957 by the first Moscvoretsky bridge of the
post-war years – Kalininsky – of 43 m width and almost half a kilometers length.
The bridge has an unbroken construction, applied in Moscow for the first time,
and unusual piers-colonnades.
Moving forward, reach Bolotnaya square. Now here a beautiful ensemble with
various sculptures and fountains are situated. And former very long ago a low
bank of the river in these places turned into a bog. Later after a large flood a
drainage channel was built along the old channel, and in 1994 a bridge was built
across it (people call it “bridge for kisses”.
In front you see Maliy stone bridge. It was built in 30-s of the previous
century in the place of other older one. Above water of the channel an arch
towers; patterned rails are made of cast iron. The bridge will lead you to the
very heart of the city. In front the towers of the Moscow Kremlin are visible
already. But turn to the other side, to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. The
bridge here was built recently, and despite its imposing sizes (about 200 m of
length) looks quite graceful and light. Not far another pedestrian bridge –
Andreevsky – is situated. It connected Neskuchniy garden with Frunzelskaya quay.
Not so long ago it was a railway bridge, on which loaded trains. And it was
situated not in its present place, but a kilometer and a half higher along the
river. But trains stopped to move and the old construction was dragged to the
new place and repaired, keeping the appearance of the architectural monument of
the beginning of XX century, and some novelties were added.
With the development of house-building in the South-West of the capital, when
it was required to prolong Frunzenskiy radius of the Metro and to build a new
radial highway – Komsomolsky broad street, connecting it with Vernadsky broad
street, strong necessity in a bridge, which would connect Luzhniki with Leninsky
hills, appeared.
This problem was solved by a two-tier bridge – the only in the capital. It is
the most extensive bridge across the Moskva-river. Its length with piers makes
up 1179 m, and counting from the beginning of the embankment on the left bank to
the end of the earth hollow on the right bank – 2030 m.
If you are tired of the long walking, no matter, you can climb up the bridge
by escalator. The middle of it is closed by a gauzy cupola, protecting from the
bad weather, and in the part which passes over Neskuchny garden, a tunnel was
made of patterned wooden railings.
Moscow bridges are not only the result of talented engineering thought, but
also remarkable works of architecture.
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