St. Petersburg is called the "city of bridges" - sixty-eight rivers, canals and ducts cross the city in different directions, forming on its vast territory forty-two islands. Bridges - an integral part of the architectural panorama of St. Petersburg, organically included in the glorified ensembles.

Along with St. Isaac's Cathedral, Nevsky Prospekt and the Bronze Horseman, the bridges of St. Petersburg have long become a visiting card of the city, the most important part of its romantic appearance .In St. Petersburg and its surrounding suburbs, about 800 bridges have been built, for which the city on the Neva is often called a museum of bridges in the open air .Today it is difficult to believe that at the dawn of its history St. Petersburg did not have bridges .Peter the First set himself the goal of instilling in the townspeople a love of the sea business, so at first the residents crossed from shore to shore on boats or ferries, and the construction of bridges in the city was banned .

Old and new bridges

True, the first bridges, made of wood, appeared all the same in the time of Peter. The Petersburg bridge construction was started in 1705 by Peter's bridge, which in 1887 was renamed to Ioannovsky, followed by Anichkov Bridge, which was also constructed of wood.

Many St. Petersburg bridges survived to a solid age, very little inferior to St. Petersburg itself, others, such as the Obukhov Bridge, were built quite recently to improve the transport situation in the city. To this day, tourists admire the perfectly preserved first stone bridges. The Hermitage, the Laundry, the Upper Lebyazhy, the Stone Bridge through the Griboedov Canal traditionally attract the attention of the city's guests on the Neva and are invariably present in their photos.

The bridges of St. Petersburg, like its full-fledged residents, are unique, endowed with their own names, and each of them has its own history .So, Blue, White, Green and Yellow bridges got their names in the 18th century .To make it more convenient to distinguish them, the bridges were painted in different colors, in accordance with which they named .Until now, only the names of the Blue and Green Bridge have been preserved, and the Yellow and White Bridge have been renamed Song and Red respectively .And in order to give the name to the Bolshoy Obukhov Bridge, there was even a vote among residents of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region .Proposals to call it "the bridge of Olga Berggolts", "Izhorskiy", "Nevsky" were mercilessly rejected, but the name Bolshaya Obukhovskiy stuck .

Excursions on land and water

By the way, the erroneously popular opinion is that all the bridges of St. Petersburg are divorced .Initially, and indeed divorced all the Petersburg bridges, however, they were quite unsophisticated and wooden, later they were strengthened with stone bases, adorned with carved lattices and arches .Now in St. Petersburg only 13 bridges are divorced, the most famous of which are the Dvortsovy, Troitsky and Liteiny .Bridging is a spectacle, of course, impressive, but it causes a slight inconvenience to local residents and stays up late to tourists .

To get acquainted with the magical bridges of the Northern capital is convenient during a walk or a boat trip along the St. Petersburg rivers and canals .It does not matter if you prefer to go on foot or go on a boat ride on a boat, unforgettable impressions of the kind of exquisite bridges and strict embankments are guaranteed .Usually the walking routes are designed to show tourists all the pearls of the Petersburg bridge construction, and include excursions along the Neva, the Moika, the Fontanka, the Griboedov Canal and other rivers and canals that lead to the Neva .