Construction of an arched cast iron bridge named after. Lieutenant Schmidt, b. The Nikolaevsky Bridge, according to the design of the Russian railway engineer S. Kerbedz, was started in December 1842 and completed in November 1850, i.e. 8 years from the start of construction. The cost of the bridge amounted to 4,381 thousand rubles according to the executive estimate. Before the construction of this bridge on the river. Neva there were only one floating bridges on pontoons.<…> Having been in operation for 86 years, the bridge named after Lieutenant Schmidt has long failed to satisfy the growing demands of shipping and urban traffic, both due to the worn-out state of individual elements and its limited dimensions. Even in pre-revolutionary times, under the St. Petersburg Railway District, two bridge reconstruction projects were drawn up: in 1906 by Professor Krivoshein (the author of the Okhtensky Bridge over the Neva) and in 1909 by engineers Vitol and Glushkov. But the task of reconstruction b. The Nikolaevsky Bridge, very technically complex, remained unimplemented in pre-revolutionary times. In 1934, by resolution of the Council of Labor and Defense, an interdepartmental commission was formed on the issue of rebuilding Leningrad bridges from the point of view of eliminating obstacles to navigation. The commission, having considered the presented four options for rebuilding the bridge named after Lieutenant Schmidt, decided to rebuild the drawbridge according to the second of the presented options, according to which the new drawbridge is located on the right bank, but extends somewhat into the river. By decree of the STO of September 5, 1935, it was proposed to develop this option into a technical project and submit it for approval to the People's Commissariat of Public Utilities. The drafting was entrusted to prof. G.P. Perederiy, who during the development process found that carrying out the reconstruction of the bridge according to the intended option presented great difficulties, and even excluded guarantees of the success of the work itself. These circumstances led to the fact that, instead of the indicated option, prof. Peredery proposed a new option for rebuilding the bridge, which was accepted for implementation. The solution proposed by prof. Perederiy, was approved by the Presidium of the Leningrad Council and submitted for approval by the government. On May 6, 1936, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR finally approved the option of rebuilding the bridge according to the scheme proposed by prof. Perederiy. The total length of the bridge being rebuilt along the top between the abutments is equal to 331 m. The number of spans remains the same. The eighth right-bank span, on the site of the old draw span, is covered with reinforced concrete double-hinged arches with granite cladding. The deck of the bridge roadway is laid on a reinforced concrete slab made of asphalt concrete, and the ends are laid in the tram deck; sidewalks, each 3 m wide, are laid asphalt on consoles. At the same time, the useful width of the bridge between the sidewalk railings opposite the existing one increases. Location of the bridge. Lieutenant Schmidt, as the first bridge at the entrance to the Neva in the old part of the city with complete architectural ensembles, surrounded by remarkable architectural monuments, required special attention when choosing individual structures and the silhouette of the bridge. If the old bridge with cast iron arches resting on granite abutments with pylons represented a successful combination of the engineering part with the external architectural part, then the new project is inferior to the external qualities that were in the old bridge. The grating (architect Stackenschneider) and lanterns (architect Peretyatkovich) from the old bridge are preserved, which are examples of highly artistic cast iron casting. On the outside, to give greater lightness to the lines of the beam, which is somewhat heavy and dry in outline, it is given some ornamentation along the consoles and lower chords. In this way she connects with the rich old lattice. The control pavilions, in the form of low towers, are designed in stone forms that do not dominate the silhouette of the bridge and do not violate the overall urban ensemble. In December 1936, work began on the reconstruction of the bridge named after Lieutenant Schmidt. The total cost of reconstruction of the bridge will be 23 million rubles.

(Smirnov I.A. Redevelopment of the bridge named after Lieutenant Schmidt // Architecture of Leningrad. 1937. No. 3. P. 28-31).

Significant work was the reconstruction of the bridge named after Lieutenant Schmidt, connecting the central part of the city with Vasilyevsky Island. The old arched trusses, erected by Kerbedz, were replaced with new, beam, welded construction, with a solid wall (Fig. 395). The work on welding bridge trusses was the largest achievement in this area at that time. To improve the conditions for navigation on the Neva, the iron trusses of the bridge were installed at a higher level, for which it was necessary to rebuild all the bridge supports. The drawbridge span, previously located near the bank, has now been moved to the middle of the river. The old patterned cast iron grating has been preserved and serves as a link between the new bridge structure and the embankment. The old cast-iron trusses of the bridge were in such good condition that they were used in Kalinin on the bridge over the river. Tvertsa. (Shchusev P.V. Bridges and their architecture. 1952. P. 301)

A drawbridge over the Neva River (Bolshaya Neva) in St. Petersburg, the first permanent city bridge across the Neva. A wooden pontoon (floating) bridge connected the banks of the river near this place in 1727, and in 1843-1850 a permanent cast-iron arch bridge was built according to the design of S.V. Kerbedz. In 1936-1938 and 2005-2007, the bridge underwent major reconstruction, and in the latter case the bridge was restored to its historical appearance.

The first pontoon bridge was located in a slightly different place - from St. Isaac's Cathedral to the Menshikov Palace (this place was chosen for him by A.D. Menshikov himself), it was called St. Isaac's and lasted until the construction of a permanent bridge. The new bridge, built in 1850, was named Blagoveshchensky after the Annunciation Church of the Horse Guards Regiment, which previously stood on modern Truda Square. After the death of Nicholas I in 1855, the bridge was renamed Nikolaevsky. In Soviet times, it was renamed again, this time the Lieutenant Schmidt Bridge. And only after reconstruction in 2007, the bridge was returned to its previous name - Blagoveshchensky.

The construction of a permanent bridge was a consequence of the rapid development of the Russian capital. The project for the new Nevsky Bridge was approved in 1842, and the following year construction work began, which ended only in 1850. The long construction period was caused by the complexity of deep-sea work in a place where the Neva has a strong current. The eight-span cast-iron bridge, built according to the design of military engineer S.V. Kerbedz, was made of arched structures and was raised near the right bank, and for this, for the first time in Russia, a rotary system was used.

In the design of the bridge railings, symbols of the water element were used - Neptune's trident, a shell and two hippocampi, and seahorses. The interior space of the bridge pillars was decorated with figures of various vessels. The chapel of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker was built on the drawbridge bull. And gas metal lanterns were responsible for lighting the bridge. It was planned to supplement the decor with allegorical sculptures, but there was no longer enough money for this.

It was while parked near the Blagoveshchensky Bridge that the cruiser Aurora fired its famous shot, which served as the beginning of the storming of the Winter Palace in 1917.

The bridge, which was built during reconstruction in the 1930s, significantly changed the size and design of the structure. It acquired more modern features, the draw span became central, and the mechanism changed from rotary to vertical. The old design of the bridge was used in other construction works - lanterns on the Field of Mars, and cast iron arches on the Novovolzhsky Bridge in Tver.

At the beginning of the 21st century, it was decided to carry out another reconstruction of the bridge, at the same time returning the structure to its former historical appearance.

The Blagoveshchensky Bridge is a kind of border at the beginning of the Gulf of Finland.

The length of the bridge is 331 m, width is 37 m. At the time of construction, it was 300 m long and was considered one of the longest in Europe.

The Blagoveshchensky Bridge is included in the Unified State Register of Cultural Heritage Objects (historical and cultural monuments) of Russia.

Note to tourists:

A visit to the Blagoveshchensky Bridge will be of interest to tourists interested in the architecture of the 19th-20th centuries, to everyone who wants to see the drawbridges of St. Petersburg, and can also become one of the points of the excursion program while exploring neighboring attractions -

Blagoveshchensky (Lieutenant Schmidt Bridge) in St. Petersburg is the first permanent crossing of the Neva. In the 18th century, the city made do with floating bridges, since it was believed that building a permanent bridge was a very expensive and complex process. The Blagoveshchensky Bridge in St. Petersburg, which connected Vasilievsky Island with the English Embankment, was at that time the longest in Europe.

From the history

The first work on the construction of permanent bridges across the Neva appeared in the middle of the 18th century, but their implementation remained a pipe dream due to the high cost and complexity of the projects.

In 1842, it was decided to build a permanent ferry between Vasilyevsky Island and the English Embankment; the project was developed by Stanislav Valerianovich Kerbedz, a graduate of the Institute of Railways.

Construction was carried out in accordance with the “Regulations on the construction of a permanent bridge across the Neva River in St. Petersburg” approved by the emperor, according to which the work was planned for four years. However, the construction of the crossing took twice as long: work was carried out from 1843 to November 1850.

At that time, there were three long-term construction projects in St. Petersburg: Nevsky Bridge, Moscow Railway and St. Isaac's Cathedral. There was a joke among the people:

The Nevsky Bridge will be built, but it will quickly fall apart, so we will see it, but our children will not
The railway will take so long to be built that we will not see it and our children will not see it
And St. Isaac's Cathedral will never be built at all and neither we nor our children will see it.

The construction of the crossing, which was called Nevskaya, took place in extremely difficult conditions of swampy soil. The number of workers employed in construction was close to one and a half thousand. Piles were driven using steam engines, and air bells were used to carry out underwater work. The coastal abutments were lined with granite: Finnish granite was used for the underwater part, and Serdobol granite for the surface part.

There is a legend according to which NicholasI, knowing about the difficulties of construction, ordered Kerbedz to be promoted in rank for each bridge span erected. Evil tongues claimed that when Kerbedz found out about this, he immediately changed the project, increasing the number of spans. Most likely, this is fiction, but it is known that before the start of construction Stanislav Veniaminovich was in the rank of captain, and on the day the bridge opened on November 21, 1850, he was promoted to the rank of major general.

The artist Alexander Bryullov took part in the design of the bridge. According to his design, cast iron railings were cast, and the design of metal gas lamps was created by engineer D. Tsvetkov. The supports of the structure were not decorated, this emphasized their “unshakable stability.” It was planned that allegorical sculptures based on drawings by Pyotr Klodt and Nikolai Pimenov would be installed on the bridge, but this idea had to be abandoned due to lack of funds.

The territories adjacent to the crossing were arranged as follows:

On Admiralty Island, Blagoveshchenskaya Square (now Truda Square) and the Annunciation Church in its center were built, after which the bridge was named
On the side of Vasilyevsky Island, the embankment was expanded and Trezzini Square was created.

The Nevsky Bridge was tested for its load-carrying capacity by dragging rails brought from Europe for the construction of the railway onto it.

The grand opening of the Blagoveshchensky Bridge took place on November 21, 1850. On this day, one could observe a spectacle unusual for winter, when the emperor and thousands of townspeople gathered near the Neva. The ceremony began with a prayer service, after which Emperor Nicholas I and his sons walked across the crossing to Vasilyevsky Island, and the distinguished guests returned in open carriages.

St. Petersburg residents liked to walk here, they admired the openwork grilles and gas lamps raised on pillars in the form of columns of the Corinthian order, as well as the drawbridge for the passage of ships.

For those times it was truly a gigantic structure:

The length of the bridge was 298.2 meters
Width – 20.3 meters
Weight of metal structures of the crossing - 95,000 tons
Number of spans – 8.

The swing span was located on the right bank of the Neva, next to Vasilievsky Island, its two wings opened in about 40 minutes.

After the death of Nicholas I in 1855, the bridge was renamed Nikolaevsky. Next to the drawbridge, according to the design of the architect Andrei Stackenschneider, a small chapel of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker was erected on a bull near the drawbridge, which people began to call “Nicholas-on-the-bridge.”

By the beginning of the 20th century, the crossing had become narrow for the passage of new ships, and this part of the Neva was shallow. In this regard, it was decided to reconstruct the bridge and move the drawbridge to the center.

The implementation of this project was prevented by the outbreak of the First World War.

During the revolutionary events of 1917, the famous cruiser Aurora stood next to the Nikolaevsky Bridge, announcing the start of the assault on the Winter Palace with its shot. In honor of this event, a monument was erected on the Promenade des Anglais.

In 1918, the Nikolaevsky Bridge was renamed the Lieutenant Schmidt Bridge in memory of Peter Schmidt, who led the Sevastopol uprising on the cruiser Ochakov in 1905. According to one of the projects, it was proposed to erect a monument to a revolutionary figure, the first of the naval officers to go over to the side of the rebel sailors, on the site of the demolished chapel.

The issue of rebuilding the Nikolaevsky Bridge was returned to only after the revolution and the Civil War.

In 1930, the chapel was demolished, and it soon became clear that it was necessary to radically reconstruct the crossing. The adjustable mechanism began to jam, in addition, it was necessary to change the span for ships passing along the Neva, since their number increased due to the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal.

The crossing was rebuilt in the 1930s according to the design of bridge engineer, academician Grigory Petrovich Perederia. In essence, this was the construction of a new bridge with a central draw span on old abutments. Of the external design, only the railing, made according to the drawings of Alexander Bryullov, was preserved.

The name of the engineer and designer Perederiy caused a new surge in the creative activity of the Leningrad mockingbirds. In the arsenal of urban folklore, the expression “Peredery overdid it” appeared.

When reconstructing the bridge, bridge construction methods that were new for that time were used. The connection of steel structures was carried out using electric welding, which has proven itself positively during the construction of the Volodarsky Bridge, and a new method of underwater concreting was also used.

After reconstruction, the length of the Lieutenant Schmidt Bridge became 331 meters, and the width increased by 4 meters and amounted to 24 meters: the roadway increased to 18 meters, the sidewalks were 3 meters long. At the same time, the weight of the structure decreased almost four times and became 2400 tons.

The adjustable wings were now located in the middle span, and their raising time was only 55 seconds.

In the center of the bridge, on the round towers, memorial plaques were installed in memory of Lieutenant Schmidt and the creators of the bridge.

To test the strength of the object, on September 8, 1938, five wooden waterproof boxes, one meter high and with a displacement of 900 tons, were installed on the right bank roadway and filled with water, creating a model for placing passenger cars in five rows at the crossing. After three hours, the water was released and the test was carried out on the other side.

On November 5, 1938, traffic on the renovated Lieutenant Schmidt Bridge was open. The wooden deck of the drawbridge was replaced with metal in 1976.

Reconstruction of the Lieutenant Schmidt Bridge in the 2000s

The question of a new reconstruction arose in 2004. For the movement of vehicles and pedestrians during repairs, a backup bridge was built upstream of the Neva.

During the reconstruction, old steel structures were replaced with new ones. The grand opening of the renovated bridge took place on August 15, 2007. The newly opened crossing was given back its historical name – Blagoveshchensky Bridge. Its width has increased from 24 to 37 meters, the number of lanes for vehicle traffic is 8.

Bridge Lieutenant Schmidt

This bridge is a first in many ways. First built permanent bridge over the Neva River. It was built in 1842 - 1850 according to the design of engineer S.V. Kerbedza(architectural design by architect A.P. Bryullov). It was an 8-span cast-iron arch bridge 300 meters long and 20 meters wide. At that time it was the longest bridge in Europe. Seven spans were covered with gently sloping cast-iron arches, and the eighth, located on the right bank, was movable. The joints between the cast iron blocks were filled with lead gaskets. The size of the bridge spans gradually increased from the banks to the middle of the river. The mass of all metal structures was neither more nor less 95,000 tons.

The creative debate over the best design for the first permanent bridge across the Neva was unusually long.
The first project that was considered 60 years. Russian and foreign engineers and architects proposed many projects, until the young St. Petersburg engineer Stanislav Valerianovich Kerbedz won this competition. Construction was identified where the Kryukov Canal flowed into the Neva. Therefore, part of the canal was enclosed in a stone pipe and filled up. So St. Petersburg received another Nevsky square. At the same time, on the right side of the Neva near Vasilyevsky Island, the embankment was significantly expanded.

“The construction of the bridge itself,” the Northern Bee newspaper wrote on September 16, 1844, “is a gigantic undertaking. It is unlikely that in modern times work on such a huge plan was carried out with such amazing precision, grace, taste and from such precious material! Mountains of granite, transferred here from Finland, and, like delicate wax, obey the gigantic thought of man! Steam engines drive piles in the middle of the fast and deep Neva, while under the water they build strong stone foundations on the ground reinforced with piles.”

The newspaper article depicted the process of building strong stone foundations in a rosy and somewhat light-hearted way. In fact, the ground conditions along the construction route turned out to be extremely unfavorable, and carrying out underwater work with the technology of that time was both unimaginably risky and unimaginably difficult.

It is not surprising that there was a rumor in the city that Nicholas I ordered the chief builder to be promoted in rank for the installation of each support. This hardly reflected reality. However, Kerbedz, who presented his first project with the rank of engineer captain, completed construction as a general.

And one more interesting detail: few people know that the bridge did not change its name three times. (Blagoveshchensky, Nikolaevsky, Lieutenant Schmidt). At the very beginning, when the future Blagoveshchenskaya Square was just taking shape, and the elegant Annunciation Church was just being erected, it bore an extremely precise name - Nevsky. What else can you call the only permanent bridge across the Neva!

The bridge was officially opened November 21, 1850 It was named Blagoveshchensky after the church of the same name of the Horse Guards Regiment, built on the bridgehead of the left bank.

In 1854, according to the project of A.I. Stackenschneider built a chapel on a bull near the drawbridge span, consecrated in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. In connection with the death of Emperor Nicholas I, in February 1855 the bridge was renamed Nikolaevsky.

The cast iron grate was made according to the design of the architect A.P. Bryullov. The somewhat elongated framed rectangle contains an ornament representing a composition, the middle of which is accentuated by a trident on the shell. Facing it on both sides are seahorses with raised tails, woven into a symmetrical floral pattern.

This is the first bridge also because he became the first from the harbor side, connecting Vasilievsky Island with the city center.

To enlarge, click on the photo

In honor of Lieutenant Pyotr Petrovich Schmidt (1867-1906), who led the uprising on the cruiser "Ochakov" of the Black Sea Fleet in 1905 , the bridge was renamed in October 1918 and received its current name.

At the moment, the Lieutenant Schmidt Bridge, decorated with two pavilions and high lampposts, is the only such structure on the Bolshaya Neva, resting on wooden piles from the mid-19th century and is famous for its beautiful panorama, offering a magnificent view of the historical center of the city with St. Isaac's Cathedral, the Admiralty , and the picturesque University embankment.

The bridge was built in 1850 according to the design of engineer S.V. Kerbedza became the first permanent crossing across the Neva. The cast-iron, eight-span structure connected Vasilievsky Island with the central part of St. Petersburg near the building of the Academy of Arts, at the junction of the Lieutenant Schmidt and Universitetskaya embankments. Initially, the bridge was named Blagoveshchensky, then, in 1855, it was renamed Nikolaevsky, and in 1918 the bridge was named after Lieutenant Schmidt, by which it is called to this day. The bridge bears this name in honor of Pyotr Schmidt, a famous lieutenant of the Black Sea Fleet, who was shot for organizing the uprising in Sevastopol in 1905. In his honor, there is a memorial plaque on the wall of the pavilion located next to the central part of the bridge. The total width of the bridge reaches 24 meters, and the length is 331 meters.

Seven spans of the bridge were made of cast-iron arched structures, with a “ride on top”, the eighth span became drawable in a horizontal plane, double-winged, located at the right bank abutment. The cast iron fencing of the engineering structure was designed in decorative and artistic design by the architect A.P. Bryullov. Its links were decorated with Neptune's tridents with a palmette and fantastic seahorses, whose tails are skillfully woven into a floral figured ornament. The interior space of the bridge pillars was filled with figures of vessels of various shapes and heights. The decor of the bridge was completed with gas metal lanterns made according to the design of D. Tsvetkov, as well as the chapel of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker designed by the architect A. I. Stackenschneider, which has not survived to this day.

The Lieutenant Schmidt Bridge served faithfully for almost a hundred years. Only in the period from 1936 to 1938 was the bridge reconstructed under the leadership of Academician G.P. Perederia and architect L.A. Noskov, caused by an increase in transport loads and shipping. During the major reconstruction, cast iron structures were replaced with steel ones, which led to a fourfold reduction in the weight of the bridge. The draw span also underwent reconstruction, which was replaced by a reinforced concrete arch lined with granite, and the remaining spans of the bridge were re-covered with continuous steel arches. By the way, during the ongoing repair work, new bridge structures were made by electric welding for the first time in the history of Soviet construction technology.

However, the reconstruction of the bridge significantly changed the appearance of this structure. The straight lines of the new spans gave its outline a somewhat dry character, and the removal of the old lanterns and the chapel somewhat simplified the intricate decor. Nowadays, only those beautiful railings, used for the fence from the very beginning and untouched by reconstruction, serve as a reminder of the former bridge. New lamp posts were made according to the design of the architect L. A. Noskov. It should be noted that the mounted decorative components of the bridge did not disappear without a trace: the lanterns currently illuminate the Field of Mars, and the cast-iron arched structures were used for the construction of the bridge across the Volga River in Tver and serve to this day.

The text was prepared by Anzhelika Likhacheva

Note to tourists:

From the history

Reconstruction of the Lieutenant Schmidt Bridge in the 2000s

Bridge Lieutenant Schmidt

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