Legendary Bridges. Stories and Legends about St. Petersburg Bridges

St. Petersburg is a city of white nights, luxurious mansions, numerous rivers and canals, and, of course, various bridges. According to official data, there are 443 bridges in the city on the Neva, and St. Petersburg ranks fifth in the world in this regard, behind only Hamburg, Berlin, Amsterdam, and Venice.
St. Petersburg ranks fifth in the world in the number of bridges after Hamburg, Berlin, Amsterdam, and Venice. 443 bridges, 443 unique designs and the stories behind their construction and "everyday life."
A bridge is one of the oldest technical structures. Being a simple necessity, the bridge has firmly entered our lives and gained sacredness in the mythology and religion of many peoples around the world. Peter the Great built St. Petersburg as his "paradise" (heaven on earth), and the city's bridge builders sometimes had to perform real miracles, inventing and implementing projects of incredible beauty and strength in this challenging terrain.
Today, the bridges of St. Petersburg serve not only as crossings, but also as "time portals"—crossing them, we often find ourselves transported from one century to another, surrounded by architecture of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Almost any bridge can be called "legendary" in St. Petersburg, as each is associated with some story or legend, and often the fate of its creation and further existence is quite remarkable.
The author of this book, accredited tour guide of the first category Lilya Sergeeva, will tell you about the most famous, remarkable, and interesting bridges of the northern capital. By viewing panoramic photographs and archival illustrations, you will take a "walk" along the banks of the Moika and Fontanka rivers, cross the Lebyazhya Canal, admire the beauty of the Griboedov Canal, and, of course, explore the bridges on the Great Neva, approaching the very shores of the Gulf of Finland.

• What were the first bridges of St. Petersburg and who built them?
• Why do the lions on the Bank Bridge have no manes?
• What is the real cause of the St. Petersburg floods?
• How are the bridges connected to "the children of lieutenant Schmidt"?
• Where is the "ghost bridge" located?

Tracing the history of bridge construction in St. Petersburg—Petrograd—Leningrad, we seem to read a fairy tale about how ordinary wooden crossings gradually turned into the main decoration of the city. Regardless of the materials used—stone, cast iron, reinforced concrete, steel, aluminum—they became an integral part of the views of St. Petersburg. Walk across these bridges and embankments—perhaps in their reflections on the water you will see and hear new stories and legends that have only been revealed to you. Examine the bridges from the water on excursion boats, feel their inseparable connection with the city, its mysteries, and secrets. Open this book and immerse yourself in the living history of St. Petersburg.

About the author:
Lilya Sergeeva is a philologist by education, living in St. Petersburg since 2006. She worked for about 10 years in the bookstore company "Bukvoed," while simultaneously studying at various tour guide courses on St. Petersburg and independently studying the history and architecture of the city. Since 2015, she has been working as a tour guide on the rivers and canals of St. Petersburg. She is an accredited first-category tour guide by the St. Petersburg Tourism Development Committee.