Palace Bridge
It connects the Central part of the city between the Winter Palace and the Admiralty and the Spit of Vasilievsky Island, where the country's main stock exchange was located. Thus, the Palace Bridge can be considered the main bridge of the Russian Empire, connecting the highest echelons of power and the magnates of domestic business of the past. Bridge length 260 meters Width 27.8 meters Weight of steel structures 7770 tons, including 2800 tons - counterweights of the drawer part of the bridge.
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Palace Bridge
The Palace Bridge has five spans.
The middle one is adjustable, two-winged. Each wing is balanced by seven counterweights, hinged to its tail.
The remaining spans are covered by two metal riveted continuous spans with through trusses having lower curved chords. In 1901, a competition was announced for the design of a permanent Palace Bridge.
In 1909.
The project of engineer A.P. Pshenitsky, a graduate of the St. Petersburg Institute of Railway Engineers, was adopted. Architectural design, by order of the President of the Academy of Arts, was entrusted to the architect R. F. Meltzer.
On February 5, 1911, an agreement on the construction of the bridge was signed with the Kolomna Plants Society (the completion date was scheduled for October 15, 1913). Due to the outbreak of war in 1914, the construction of the bridge was delayed even more. The bridge was opened on December 23, 1916. The celebration was modest. The artistic decoration of the bridge was never completed. The installation of railings, lanterns and control pavilions was completed already under Soviet rule. The cast iron railing grid, made by sculptor I.V. Krestovsky according to a drawing by architect L.A. Noskov, appeared only in 1939 (before that, the railings were wooden). In 1917, the bridge was named Republican, but in January 1944 its historical name was returned to it. The bridge was overhauled in 1967, and in 1977 it was reconstructed according to the design of engineers T. D. Ivanova, V. I. Botvinnik and architects Yu. I. Sinitsa and M. V. Vinnichenko.
In the process of this work, the drawer section was updated, the flooring was replaced, new lamps were installed, and the plank “huts” that had been preserved since 1916 were removed from the middle supports. In the summer of 1997, another reconstruction of the bridge was carried out.
The work was carried out under the guidance of engineer Yu. Petrov. The Palace Bridge was one of the first bridges in St. Petersburg.
Due to weak technologies of the 18th and 19th centuries, the bridge was more of a temporary crossing than a serious engineering structure. Therefore, in the first year of the twentieth century, it was decided to build a real bridge corresponding to the status of the main bridge of the Russian Empire.
It is pleasant to note that the announced competition for the project was won by Russian engineer A.P.
Pshenitsky. 8 years passed from the start of the competition to the final decision of the commission.
How many papers passed through the offices of state government officials and advisers during this time? History is cyclical and there is nothing surprising in the fact that the modern heirs of the mayors in modern Russia are also able to “resolve issues” for decades. Only in 1911 a construction contract was signed with the Kolomna Plants Society.
Moreover, the deadlines were very strict - the bridge had to be commissioned within 2 years!
Let us remember that officials have been shifting their papers for 10 years.
Does anyone have a question - who were the real enemies of Russia? The Japanese in 1905, the Germans in 1914?
Mamai or Batu? And was the October Revolution not just and logical?
However, shouldn’t we blame everything on the officials?
Was Russian business really that good? After all, according to the contract, the bridge was supposed to be commissioned on October 15, 1913.
But we celebrated the New Year, the 14th, and the completion of construction was still visible on the horizon. How did the officials miss this, why didn’t they remove the guilty contractors from work?
What kind of arguments did clever businessmen find? They found such “arguments” that they were allowed to delay construction until the last days of 1916... The Palace Bridge was officially commissioned on December 23.
There were no ceremonial events.
Not only because there was a bloody and senseless war, but also because there was no solemnity on the bridge. There were a lot of technical shortcomings, and no one remembered at all about the artistic elements that were simply mandatory for the central architectural structure of the city. Despite how today they criticize the Soviet regime, which supposedly destroyed the greatness of Russia, it was during the Soviet era that the bridge was completed as it should have been according to the project.
The middle one is adjustable, two-winged. Each wing is balanced by seven counterweights, hinged to its tail.
The remaining spans are covered by two metal riveted continuous spans with through trusses having lower curved chords. In 1901, a competition was announced for the design of a permanent Palace Bridge.
In 1909.
The project of engineer A.P. Pshenitsky, a graduate of the St. Petersburg Institute of Railway Engineers, was adopted. Architectural design, by order of the President of the Academy of Arts, was entrusted to the architect R. F. Meltzer.
On February 5, 1911, an agreement on the construction of the bridge was signed with the Kolomna Plants Society (the completion date was scheduled for October 15, 1913). Due to the outbreak of war in 1914, the construction of the bridge was delayed even more. The bridge was opened on December 23, 1916. The celebration was modest. The artistic decoration of the bridge was never completed. The installation of railings, lanterns and control pavilions was completed already under Soviet rule. The cast iron railing grid, made by sculptor I.V. Krestovsky according to a drawing by architect L.A. Noskov, appeared only in 1939 (before that, the railings were wooden). In 1917, the bridge was named Republican, but in January 1944 its historical name was returned to it. The bridge was overhauled in 1967, and in 1977 it was reconstructed according to the design of engineers T. D. Ivanova, V. I. Botvinnik and architects Yu. I. Sinitsa and M. V. Vinnichenko.
In the process of this work, the drawer section was updated, the flooring was replaced, new lamps were installed, and the plank “huts” that had been preserved since 1916 were removed from the middle supports. In the summer of 1997, another reconstruction of the bridge was carried out.
The work was carried out under the guidance of engineer Yu. Petrov. The Palace Bridge was one of the first bridges in St. Petersburg.
Due to weak technologies of the 18th and 19th centuries, the bridge was more of a temporary crossing than a serious engineering structure. Therefore, in the first year of the twentieth century, it was decided to build a real bridge corresponding to the status of the main bridge of the Russian Empire.
It is pleasant to note that the announced competition for the project was won by Russian engineer A.P.
Pshenitsky. 8 years passed from the start of the competition to the final decision of the commission.
How many papers passed through the offices of state government officials and advisers during this time? History is cyclical and there is nothing surprising in the fact that the modern heirs of the mayors in modern Russia are also able to “resolve issues” for decades. Only in 1911 a construction contract was signed with the Kolomna Plants Society.
Moreover, the deadlines were very strict - the bridge had to be commissioned within 2 years!
Let us remember that officials have been shifting their papers for 10 years.
Does anyone have a question - who were the real enemies of Russia? The Japanese in 1905, the Germans in 1914?
Mamai or Batu? And was the October Revolution not just and logical?
However, shouldn’t we blame everything on the officials?
Was Russian business really that good? After all, according to the contract, the bridge was supposed to be commissioned on October 15, 1913.
But we celebrated the New Year, the 14th, and the completion of construction was still visible on the horizon. How did the officials miss this, why didn’t they remove the guilty contractors from work?
What kind of arguments did clever businessmen find? They found such “arguments” that they were allowed to delay construction until the last days of 1916... The Palace Bridge was officially commissioned on December 23.
There were no ceremonial events.
Not only because there was a bloody and senseless war, but also because there was no solemnity on the bridge. There were a lot of technical shortcomings, and no one remembered at all about the artistic elements that were simply mandatory for the central architectural structure of the city. Despite how today they criticize the Soviet regime, which supposedly destroyed the greatness of Russia, it was during the Soviet era that the bridge was completed as it should have been according to the project.
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