Annunciation Bridge

Place: Connects Vasilyevsky Island with Admiralteysky Island. On the map

Construction time: 1843-1850

Designer: Stanisław Kierbedź

Name: It was called so after the Annunciation Church building, located on the bridgehead area, demolished by the Bolsheviks in XX century.

Interesting facts: Blagoveshchensky Bridge was the first permanent bridge across the Neva River, that means that a half of its history Petersburg spent without a single constant bridge! All the other city bridges were floating, and the citizen of the city had to pay for a pass. Floating bridges were installed only in summer. In winter period, Neva was crossed over the ice, by the way, nowadays it is strictly forbidden.

Legend: Legend says that Nicholas I recklessly promised to the creator of the bridge that for each constructed span he would receive the new rank. As a result, the project was quickly redesigned towards increasing the amount of spans up to eight. Thus, the architect began his work with the rank of engineer-captain and finished it as a full general.

Details on wikipedia.ru