Even Peter I dreamed of turning the northern capital of his empire into a "Russian Venice", since there were enough numerous rivers and streams here. Today St. Petersburg can rightly be proud of one of the most extensive systems of canals, rivers and bridges in the world.
As is known from history, the construction of bridges in St. Petersburg began simultaneously with the founding of the city, because without these structures communication between its individual districts was simply impossible. The first bridge, of course, was wooden. It connected the Peter and Paul Fortress, which became a kind of starting point, with Hare Island.
Since then, bridges have become one of the symbols of Northern Palmyra. The vast majority of them are real masterpieces of engineering, historical monuments and a triumph of architectural style. Studying the bridges of St. Petersburg, one can follow the development of domestic construction science, since they almost always used the most advanced technologies at one time or another.
One of the most famous and interesting in terms of engineering is the Blagoveshchensky bridge, which for itschanged its name several times over a century and a half of history, being called either Nikolayevsky or Lieutenant Schmidt's bridge.
He entered the history of the city as the first permanent pontoon. The Blagoveshchensky Bridge connects Vasilevsky Island with the historical center of St. Petersburg and, in addition, marks the conditional border between the Neva and the Gulf of Finland.
Its construction began in 1843 and lasted about seven years. The construction was headed by the famous architect S. Kerberidze, and A. P. Bryullov took the most active part in the decoration of the building. It was he who designed the famous openwork railing, which, depicting the trident of Neptune, symbolizes the violence and power of the water element.
By the time of its opening in 1850, the Annunciation Bridge, with its length of three hundred meters, was considered the longest in Europe. One of its eight spans was movable, while - for the first time in history - a swivel system was used to power the lifting mechanism. The Annunciation Bridge got its name in honor of the square of the same name that comes close to it.
Another name - Nikolaevsky - was given to the bridge after the death of Emperor Nicholas I in 1855. By the way, there was also a chapel built a little earlier at the drawbridge, consecrated in honor of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.
In Soviet times, this engineering structure was proudly called the "Lieutenant Schmidt Bridge" - in honor of the famous leader of the uprising on the cruiser "Ochakov".
During its existence, the pontoonhas gone through two major renovations. The first of these, carried out in the 1930s, was caused by a sharp increase in the number of land vehicles passing over it and an increase in the carrying capacity of ships passing under it.
The most recent emergency restoration work to date dates back to 2006-2007, when the structure was returned to its original appearance. Even earlier, Lieutenant Schmidt was deleted from the history of the city, and the bridge got back its name - Blagoveshchensky.
