Tsarsky Bridge (Yekaterinburg)

The Tsarsky Bridge, also known as the Alexander Bridge, is a stone arch bridge over the Iset River in central Yekaterinburg, Sverdlovsk Oblast. It carries Dekabristov Street, called Alexandrovsky Prospekt until the 1920s, and is one of the oldest surviving bridges in the city. The bridge is a cultural heritage site of federal importance in Russia.

History

In September 1824 Emperor Alexander I visited Yekaterinburg for the first time. A new wooden bridge on piles was built across the Iset for his arrival; the imperial procession drove over it, and the crossing has been called the Tsar's, or Alexander, Bridge ever since. Newspapers of the day wrote that the emperor was met with "joyful cries of an admiring people".

The wooden bridge wore out quickly. In 1847, when its repair was discussed, a stone rebuild was proposed, but the Ministry of Finance did not support it. In 1856–1858 the bridge was rebuilt in wood once again.

The stone bridge appeared in 1889–1890. Its design is credited to the city architect Sergei Kozlov and R. I. Karvovsky. The new crossing proved solid enough to serve the city for more than a century.

After the Second World War the bridge was renovated: the roadway was paved with asphalt and new wrought-iron railings were installed. The stone structure itself barely changed.

Architecture

The bridge has three spans: three shallow arches built of rough rubble stone. The massive Ural stone masonry gave it a large safety margin, so the bridge, designed for horse-drawn carriages, still carries car traffic. Its appearance has hardly changed since 1890, making it a rare nineteenth-century engineering structure in Yekaterinburg that survives close to its original form.

Getting there

The bridge is on Dekabristov Street where it crosses the Iset. The nearest metro station is Geologicheskaya, within walking distance. You can walk across at any time of day; the arches are best seen from the Iset embankment.

Good to know

The bridge is in daily use by cars, so it is better photographed from the riverbank than from the roadway. The name Tsarsky Bridge refers to this crossing on Dekabristov Street; other historic crossings in the city, such as the Plotinka dam, are separate sites.