The Trinity Bridge connects the Mars Field and Troitskaya Square on the Petrograd side in St. Petersburg. It is one of the most beautiful and largest bridges in the Northern capital: its length is 582 m and its width is 23.43 m. The Trinity Bridge has 5 bays and a raising bay is located near the left bank of the Neva.
Interesting facts
There is a legend that the emeritus pilot-tester Valeriy Chkalov made a daring flight under the Trinity Bridge to win the heart of his bride, almost touching the water by wheels.This is told in the movie "Valeriy Chkalov", in the filming of which in 1940 the pilot Yevgeniy Borisenko flew 6 times over the bay.
On the bridge there is a point pointing to its middle. It is on the railing in that place where the patterns on the grate change their slope.
During a walk on the pedestrian part you can see a classic postcard view of the Spit of Vasilievsky Island.
From it you can see 7 bridges:
- Ioannovsky through the Kronverkskiy strait
- Exchange through the Little Neva
- Palace through the Great Neva
- The Hermitage through the Winter Grove, it's downstream
- Upper Swan through the Swan's groove
- Laundry through the Fontanka, look upstream
- Foundry across the Neva
On the axis of the ferriage the so-called Pulkovo meridian passes - it is the zero meridian, which Russian cartographers used until the 20th century and to the transition to the Greenwich meridian.Moscow Avenue and Pulkovskoy Highway are also located on this meridian.
From the history
The first floating ferriage between the left bank of the Neva and the Petersburg side appeared in 1803, the year of the centenary of St. Petersburg foundation and was named the St. Petersburg Bridge.It walked a little higher upstream - opposite the Summer Garden and the house of Peter I.
In 1824, when the ferriage disappeared, was the beginning of building of a new scaffold bridge from Suvorovskaya to Troitskaya Square.In 1827 the building was completed and a new bridge was named Suvorovsky.
At the same time, the city needed constant ferriages across the Neva River and the first of them were built on the Vasilievsky Island and the Vyborg side and in 1890, it was made a decision to build a ferriage to the Petrograd side.Competition has been held and in a result of which the project of the Eiffel firm was recognized as the best, Eiffel firm built the Eiffel Tower.Outside the competition was considered the project of the French company Batignol, which proposed a new technology for connecting of flying arches - a consular arch system.A model with the same system was invented by the Russian engineer G.S.Semikolenov, but it was not patented by him.
It was decided to sign a contract with the French firm Batignol, which was a political step towards France. On September 25, 1896 during the visit of Nicholas II to France the bridge of Alexander III through the Seine was laid, and 11 months later on August 12, 1897, in the presence of French President Felix Faure, the Trinity Bridge was laid. At the base of the ferriage, the Emperor and the President putted the coin. Building was conducted by Russian workers with usage of domestic materials and the control for the process of building was carried out by Russian builders and architects, the Academy of Arts and the City Duma. The determined term for the completion of building – till 1901 – this demand by the French company was not executed, for which company had paid a fine in the amount of 150 000 rubles to the Russian treasury.
The opening took place on the 200th anniversary of St. Petersburg on May 16 (27), 1903.The first rising of the bridge was performed by Emperor Nicholas II by himself.He pressed the button to start the work of electric motors and the ferriage was raised.The celebration was accompanied by a salute and a procession.In memory of the opening, bronze memorial plaques with memorable dates and names of authors and builders of the ferriage were installed.
Printed editions of the early 20th century called the ferriage a French or Parisian beauty. Beautiful cast-iron lattices, which harmonized with metal arched spans and marble obelisks at the entrance from the side of the Field of Mars, the granite revetment of the towers and lanterns in the form of three-pedestrian floor lamps aroused admiration.
Several times the bridge was reconstructed.So, in 1955, during the restoration of the obelisks, the two-headed eagles were interchanged by five-pointed stars.In 1965-1967, modernization was carried out, in a result of which the double-wing bay was interchanged by a single wing and it was not raised in the horizontal plane, but began to lift.The bay has been increased to 43 meters, and since 1977 the carriageway has become wider.In 1994, memorial plaques were again installed with the dates and names of the founders of the ferriage.In 2002, double-headed eagles and crowns, the symbols of the autocracy, were restored on obelisks.
Origin of name
The bridge was named in honor of the Trinity Cathedral, located on the square with the same name.
During the fifteen years the Trinity Bridge was called by its name. After the revolution in October 1918, it was renamed as the Equality Bridge. In 1934, after the murder of S.M. Kirov, in memory of the revolutionary, it was named as Kirov. Memorial plaques with dates and names of the creators of the bridge were removed and instead of them has appeared the information about the assignment to the ferriage the name of Kirov ferriage. Only during the times of Rebuilding in 1991 the historical name of bridge was returned.
