Annunciation Bridge - a monument of engineering and architectural thought of St. Petersburg

Peter I also dreamed of turning the northern capital of his empire into "Russian Venice", the blessing of numerous rivers and rivers was enough here. To date, St. Petersburg can be proud of one of the most branched out in the world systems of canals, rivers and bridges.

As is known from history, the construction of bridges in St. Petersburg began simultaneously with the founding of the city, since without these structures the communication between its separate regions was simply impossible. The first bridge, naturally, was wooden. He connected the Peter and Paul Fortress, which became a kind of starting point, with the Hare Island.

Since then, bridges have become one of the symbols of the Northern Palmyra. The overwhelming majority of them are real masterpieces of engineering thought, historical monuments and a triumph of architectural style. Studying the bridges of St. Petersburg, you can follow the development of domestic construction science, because they almost always used the most advanced at one time or another technology.

One of the most famous and interesting in engineering terms is the Annunciation Bridge, which for several hundred and fifty years changed its name several times, being called Nikolayevsky, then a bridge of Lieutenant Schmidt.

He entered the history of the city as the first permanent pontoon. The Annunciation Bridge connects the Vasilievsky Island with the historical center of St. Petersburg and, moreover, denotes a conditional border between the Neva and the Gulf of Finland.

Its erection began in 1843 and lasted about seven years. The construction was headed by the famous architect S. Kerberidze, and in the decoration of the building the most active part was taken by AP Briullov. It was he who designed the famous delicate railing, which, depicting the trident of Neptune, symbolize the violence and strength of the water element.

By the time of its discovery in 1850, the Annunciation Bridge, with its length of three hundred meters, was considered the longest in Europe. One of its eight spans was a drawbar, while - for the first time in history - a rotary system was used to bring the lifting mechanism into operation. The same name was given to the Annunciation Bridge in honor of the square of the same name that is close to it.

Another name - Nikolaevsky - was given to the bridge after the death of Emperor Nicholas I in 1855. By the way, the chapel, built just before the spreading bay, was consecrated in honor of Nicholas the Wonderworker.

In the Soviet era, this engineering structure was proudly named "Lieutenant Schmidt's Bridge" - in honor of the famous leader of the uprising on the Ochakov cruiser.

During its existence, the pontoon experienced two large-scale reconstruction. The first of these, conducted in the 1930s, was caused by a sharply increased number of land vehicles passing through it and an increase in the carrying capacity of the ships passing under it.

The most recent for today, emergency recovery work is dated 2006-2007, when the structure was returned to its original appearance. Earlier Lieutenant Schmidt was struck from the history of the city, and the bridge received his name back - Blagoveshchensky.