The Presidential Library marking the opening day of the Annunciation Bridge

The grand opening of the first permanent bridge across the Neva took place on December 3 (November 21 - old style), 1850. St. Petersburg is often called the Venice of the North, since the city is dotted with many rivers and canals, and bridges are the connecting link between the islands. There are about 800 of them, and each has its own history, its own characteristics and a unique architectural appearance.

The Presidential Library’s portal features the electronic collection St. Petersburg Bridges numbering about 900 documents and materials. These are photographs of bridges, their structural elements, details, decorative elements (lanterns, gratings), photographs taken during construction and restoration work. It also presents plans of St. Petersburg indicating the location of bridges, project drawings, files on the release of funds for the maintenance of crossings, visual materials with views of bridges in the city of the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries and other documents.  

The first permanent drawbridge connected Vasilievsky Island with the English Embankment. During its history, the bridge changed its name several times. It was opened as Blagoveshchensky, in 1855 it began to be called Nikolaevsky, and since 1918 - the Lieutenant Schmidt Bridge. In 2007, the bridge was returned to its original name - Blagoveshchensky. The bridge is located between Trezzini Square on the University Embankment and Lieutenant Schmidt Embankment on the right bank and Labor (Truda) Square on the English Embankment on the left bank of the Neva. The first permanent crossing over the Neva was located in this very place, even before the construction of the bridge. The bridge is eight-span, metal, with a drawable double-wing span in the middle. Designed for vehicle and pedestrian traffic.  

The Presidential Library’s collections contain the work of the Russian historian and local historian Pyotr Stolpyansky Old Petersburg. Labor Palace (1923), which contains interesting facts related to the construction of the bridge.

Despite this conviction, doubts remained during the construction of the Neva Bridge: what kind of strength should the bridge have to resist the pressure of ice? No less curious for ordinary people was another question: which ice could be more dangerous for the bridge - autumn or spring? The force of ice during rapid ice drift can be very strong.

On November 6, 1842, the “Regulations on the construction of a permanent bridge across the Neva River in St. Petersburg” was published. The architect was Alexander Bryullov, and the engineer who showed “experience and consideration” in the construction of the new bridge was a graduate of the Institute of Railways, Stanislav Kerbedz. The Presidential Library’s collections contain the magazine of the Ministry of Railways (book four, published in 1899).

Work on the construction of the bridge was planned to be completed in 1846, but construction was delayed, and the opening took place only on November 21, 1850. 

One of the event contemporaries, according to Pyotr Stolpyansky, made the following conclusion: “If any foreigner wanted to know how and why Russia is strong, he should have been present at the opening of the bridge on November 21. When a thunderous “hurray!” was heard in the air, when all hearts beat strongly with one Russian feeling...”