The scenic sail into Budapest revealed three interesting and historic bridges over the Danube from Buda on the western bank to Pest on the eastern bank. The Chain Bridge held particular resonance for me since it was designed by a British engineer based on an earlier bridge he had constructed across the Thames at Marlow.
The Elisabeth Bridge
We were moored just beyond Elisabeth Bridge which is the third newest bridge of Budapest. The bridge is situated at the narrowest part of the Danube, spanning 290 metres. It is named after Elisabeth of Bavaria, a popular queen and empress of Austria-Hungary, who was assassinated in 1898.
From Wikipedia, I discovered that the bridge has an interesting history. The original permanent crossing was a decorative suspension bridge of chains, built between 1897 and 1903 amid a corruption scandal. The position of the bridge necessitated a complicated arrangement of road connections particularly at the Buda end. The bridge was designed in this way because a wealthy nobleman, a member of the city council, owned the an area of the riverbank. He wanted to make a fortune by selling the piece of land for the construction of the bridge by bribing his fellow councillors and engineers and managed to sell the land at greatly inflated prices.
The original Erzsébet Bridge, along with many other bridges all over the country, was blown up at the end of World War II by retreating Wehrmacht sappers. It is the only bridge in Budapest that could not be rebuilt in its original form. The current slender white cable bridge was built between 1961 and 1964 and follows a design for the Mulheim Bridge in Cologne.
The Liberty Bridge
The Liberty Bridge is the southernmost road bridge in Budapest. It was originally named the Franz Joseph Bridge and is the shortest bridge in Budapest. It was first built as part of the Millennium World Exhibition at the end of the 19th century and features an art nouveau design, mythological sculptures and the country's coat of arms. The northeastern tower houses a museum describing the history and construction of the Budapest bridges. The Liberty Bridge was the first in the city to be rebuilt after suffering heavy damage during World War II.
It's a cantilever truss bridge with a suspended middle span that imitates the general outline of a chain-type bridge considered to be aesthetically preferable at the time of its construction.
The Chain Bridge
The bridge was designed by English engineer William Tierney Clark in 1839 with construction supervised locally by Scottish engineer Adam Clark (no relation). It is a larger-scale version of Tierney Clark's earlier Marlow Bridge across the River Thames in England. It was built in sections and shipped from the United Kingdom to Hungary for final construction.
The bridge opened in 1849, after the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, becoming the first permanent bridge in Budapest. At the time, its centre span of 202 metres (663 ft) was one of the largest in the world. The lions at each of the abutments were carved in stone by the sculptor János Marschalkó and installed in 1852. They are similar in design to the bronze lions of Trafalgar Square in London that were commissioned in 1858 and installed in 1867. The last photo shows one of the lions ant the Pest entry to the bridge – sorry taken from a moving coach so not the best quality but shows the similarity of the lion sculptures to those in Trafalgar Square London.
The bridge's cast-iron structure was updated and strengthened in 1914. In World War II, the bridge was blown up on 18 January 1945 by the retreating Germans during the Siege of Budapest, with only the towers remaining. It was rebuilt and reopened in 1949.
Just one more post to follow and round-off this visit to Budapest.
