Pevchesky Bridge (Saint Petersburg)

 road bridge, 1840s construction

The Pevchesky Bridge across the Moika River is located at the Palace Square opposite the building of the Glinka State Chapel, it connects the Kazan and 2nd Admiralty Islands. Its length along the back faces of the abutments is 39.65 meters, width — 72 meters. This is the fourth-widest bridge in St. Petersburg after the Blue, Aptekarsky and Kazan.

The bridge is a metal single-span arched on the abutments of rubble masonry with granite cladding. A reinforced concrete superstructure is installed on top of the cast-iron structure to strengthen the bridge. The sidewalk is separated from the roadway by a cast-iron fence. The railings are cast iron openwork artistic casting.

The first wooden bridge in this place was built in 1834 by architect Auguste Montferrand. It was intended for the passage of troops to the Palace Square, where on August 30, 1834, a parade was held on the occasion of the opening of the Alexander Column. The new crossing became one of the "colored" bridges across the Moika River: along with the Red, Green and Blue that already existed at that time, this bridge was called Yellow, painting the railing in the appropriate color. Later, the Yellow Bridge was renamed the Pevchesky Bridge by the nearby Court Singing Chapel.

In 1839-1840, the wooden bridge was rebuilt into a single-span cast-iron arch according to the project of engineer E.A. Adam, who was a follower of the practice of constructing cast-iron bridges on small watercourses according to the design scheme developed by engineer V.I. Geste. On November 24 (December 6), 1840, the grand opening of the ferry took place. Emperor Nicholas I himself was the first to drive across the bridge in a carriage.

In May 1841, the bridge was closed due to the increase of the pavement by 2 vershka at the exits from the bridge to reduce the steepness.

In 1871, the pavement was repaired. In 1937, the roadway of the bridge was paved. In 1969, work was carried out on the restoration of the bridge railings. In 1997, the facade sheets of the superstructure were repaired from the upper and lower sides.

From November 2003 to August 2004, the bridge underwent major repairs for the first time in 164 years of its existence. During the repair, the deformed bridge supports were reinforced with the help of drilling piles, the cast-iron blocks of the arched arch (in which cracks were revealed) were strengthened, the geometry of the deformed arch was straightened, and the lost cast-iron decorative elements of the bridge facades were restored. To strengthen the load capacity, a powerful reinforced concrete superstructure was built on top of the cast-iron arch, along which a new roadway was laid. On the roadway of the bridge there is an island of safety with an area of about 400 m2, paved with historical paving stones made of quartzite-sandstone, discovered during repairs under layers of asphalt during the disassembly of the roadway.

There is a St. Petersburg legend about how the decision was made to build the bridge. Until 1834, there was a boat ferry in this place. At that time, Count Yuri Alexandrovich Golovkin, a distant relative of the reigning Romanov family, lived in one of the houses on the left bank of the Moika. According to legend, one day, going to a reception to the king and getting into a boat, he stumbled and bathed in the river. The next day, Nicholas I visited the count with the highest visit, wished him good health and announced his will, "so that a bridge could be built at the place where yesterday's adventure happened in order to prevent similar cases from happening again." This legend is known from the words of Count Golovkin's secretary M.M. Mikhailov and is not confirmed by historical facts.

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