There are seven bridges in Kyiv spanning the Dnipro River. But the very first stationary bridge that once did the job alone is no longer there.
Built in the 19th century, the Chain Bridge was the city’s landmark, but did not survive long.
To initially cross the Dnipro, one of the widest rivers in Europe, people took a ferry or used a pontoon bridge in summer. In the winter, when the ice was thick enough, people had to walk across. But in early spring and late autumn, there was no way to get from one bank to another.
But it wasn’t until the 19th century that the need for a permanent bridge became urgent. The growing city, which stood at the border of Kyiv and Chernihiv provinces, was becoming too important a place to have no bridge.
Russia’s Czar Nicholas I supported the state-financed project, which commenced in 1848. The construction of a bridge of this scale was a technical challenge requiring great human and financial resources from the country. But some parts were too complicated still, so the cast iron elements of the bridge were commissioned from British manufacturers.
Charles Blacker Vignoles, an influential railway and bridge engineer, was employed to design the Chain Bridge, and he, together with his two sons, locally supervised the construction process, writes Kyiv historian Mykhaylo Kalnytsky.
The metal components of the bridge were produced in Birmingham, England, and shipped to the Black Sea port of Odesa. From there, they were carried by carts pulled by oxen to the final destination. The floor of the bridge was made of wood. Its full length was about 800 meters.
In the meantime, a great number of workers were erecting stone support structures which arched over the bridge. The support arches were joined up by chains, which hooked up to each span of the bridge with vertical rods. The chains were extremely heavy and strong, each link weighing about 200 kilograms.
But the bridge itself was just a part of the work required, as all the roads leading to the bridge needed to be built as well. The right side of the Dnipro is a hill, and the serpentine road that is now known as Dniprovsky Uzviz was made at that time.
The street that is now called Naberezhne Shosse, running along the bank of the Dnipro, was also laid at the same time. Kalnytsky writes that 1,500 laborers were involved in the project daily. The process started in July, 1849. The driveway was cleaned from trees, leveled and paved with metal elements; slopes were fixed. Some parts of the road also needed to be drained.
The Chain Bridge was opened and sanctified on Sept. 28, 1853 – on the same day as the monument to Prince Volodymyr that stands on Volodymyrska Hirka. The famous Russian writer Nicolay Leskov described the inauguration of the bridge in detail. So, we can now read about thousands of Kyivans who witnessed the grand opening, perched on the hills of Kyiv.
The elegant bridge was officially called Nikolayevsky, in honor of Czar Nicholas I, though it was commonly referred to as the Chain Bridge, and that’s exactly the name that went down in history.
Initially, a toll was charged for crossing the bridge to keep it in good order. People carts and livestock had to pay to get to the other side of the river – unless it was winter and they could use the alternative route over ice. The toll system lasted through 1904.
In 1912, gasoline-powered trams were began running across the bridge as well. Trams operated on both banks of Kyiv, and even went to Brovary, a village east of Kyiv.
By the end of the 19th century, it was becoming evident that the Chain Bridge, which hung low over the waters of the Dnipro, was becoming an obstacle to river navigation. Although one section of the bridge close to the right bank was designed so that it could be drawn, it no longer saved the situation.
But what killed the bridge was the civil war that broke out in 1918. Polish troops also took part in the conflict. When retreating from Kyiv to get away from the Bolshevik Army in 1920, the Poles destroyed the bridge’s chains, and sections of it fell into the Dnipro.
Several years later, the bridge was reconstructed, but it was no longer glamorous. The famous Kyiv engineer Yevhen Paton decided to pull down the arches but still used the old piers. The little Nikolayevskaya chapel on the right bank of the bridge was ruined at the same time, under the pretext that it hampered traffic.
The city effectively got a new bridge which was named after revolutionary Yevheniya Bosh. But it seemed it was its destiny to be blown up. Soviet soldiers did it in 1941. And Germans
completed the destruction in 1943.
It wasn’t until 1965 that the modern Metro Bridge was built almost on the same spot. If you stand in the middle of the Metro Bridge, you can still see the remains of pillars on which the old Chain Bridge stood. Old photos and postcards help us to see what it looked like in the early 20th century and just how much the banks of the Dnipro have changed since.
Kyiv Post staff writer Denis Rafalsky can be reached at [email protected]
