Panchevo Bridge (Belgrade)

 railway bridge, road bridge

Pančevo Bridge (Serbian: Панчевачки мост) is currently the only bridge over the Danube in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It was named after the northern Serbian city of Pančevo in Vojvodina, which is connected to Belgrade by the road continuing from the bridge.

The bridge is located in the Belgrade municipality of Palilula, which is the only municipality in the city that occupies both banks of the Danube. Geographically, it connects two large regions of Serbia, Šumadija and Banat (Pančevački Rit). The driveways for the bridge begin already in the neighborhoods of Bogoslovija and Ada Huja and direct approach begins from the Boulevard of Despot Stefan.

The bridge spawns over the neighborhood of Viline Vode, the Danube, and lands on the Banat side in the neighborhood of Krnjača, between the sub-neighborhoods of Blok Braća Marić and Blok Branko Momirov.

Construction of the original bridge began in 1933. On October 27, 1935 it was inaugurated by the Prince regent of Yugoslavia, Pavle Karađorđević and named after the still minor King of Yugoslavia, Petar II - "Most Kralja Petra II".

In 1965 the bridge had a last major renovation. Not counting the Đerdap dams on the Romanian border, Pančevo Bridge was the only bridge over the Danube in Serbia that wasn't destroyed by the NATO aviation during the bombing of Serbia from March 24 to June 12, 1999.

After crossing into Krnjača, the bridge continues as a road which splits in two directions: Pančevo road, 16 kilometers to the east, which leads to the industrial town of Pančevo (after which both the bridge and the road are named) in the province of Vojvodina; Zrenjanin road, 77 kilometers to the north, which lead to the town of Zrenjanin, also in Vojvodina.

After 2000, a general consensus was reached that new bridges in Belgrade are a necessity. Belgrade almost dubled after 1974. when the "Gazela bridge" bridge was built.

As for the Pančevački Rit area, which experienced population growth by 10 times since Pančevo Bridge was built, things are getting even more serious as city government has plans to move Belgrade Port to the left bank and to began a project of "Third Belgrade" in this area with 400,000 inhabitants. First one is "Old Belgrade" in Šumadija, second is "New Belgrade" (Novi Beograd-Zemun) in Syrmia.