Bolshoy Krasnokholmsky Bridge

The Bolshoy Krasnokholmsky Bridge carries the Garden Ring across the Moskva River on a steel arch, linking Taganskaya Square with Nizhnyaya Krasnokholmskaya Street. The current structure was built in 1938 to a design by engineer Vladimir Vakhurkin and architect Viktor Kokorin; its 168-meter arch remains the largest among the bridges of the city center. The bridge takes its name from Krasny Kholm (“Red Hill”), a rise long known to Muscovites as Tagansky Hill.

Wooden crossings linking Tagansky Hill with Zamoskvorechye had stood here since the 18th century, but in 1823 one of them was entirely swept away by the spring flood. Judging by plans from the early and mid-20th century, the northern end of the old bridge came out onto the former Krasnokholmskaya, now Narodnaya, Street — one block south of the present structure, with the bridge’s alignment running almost at a right angle to the riverbed, creating a noticeable kink in the line of the Garden Ring.

The first permanent bridge on this site was built in 1872 by engineer-entrepreneur Amand Struve: two spans with load-bearing box girders of 65.6 meters each — the same scheme used for the old Krymsky and Borodinsky bridges. Inside the girders were a 15-meter-wide carriageway and two pedestrian sidewalks, and in the 1900s tram tracks were laid across the bridge. Like its predecessor, Struve’s bridge came out onto Narodnaya Street and retained the awkward kink in the road.

The new 1938 crossing was laid at a 55-degree angle to the riverbed, eliminating this bend in the Garden Ring. A suspension design was initially considered, but the combination of a suspension scheme with a sharp angle between the bridge and the river’s flow was deemed too risky, and preference was given to the single-span arch traditional for Moscow. The main span is formed by seven parallel crescent-shaped arches of special “DS” grade steel, each 168 meters long with a rise of 10.68 meters; the structure used about six thousand tons of metal in total.

The bridge’s shore abutments rest on four concrete caissons measuring 35.6 by 15 meters, sunk 11.5–13 meters below river level. The total length of the crossing, including approaches, is 725.5 meters, with a width of 40 meters, allowing for eight traffic lanes. These proportions make the Bolshoy Krasnokholmsky Bridge one of the widest and highest-capacity bridges in the city center.

In 2005–2007 the bridge underwent a major overhaul, with the roadway completely replaced and utility lines renewed. Today the crossing remains one of the key links of the Garden Ring in the Taganka area, and its monumental arch is a recognizable feature of the Moskva River skyline, alongside neighboring pre-war bridges of the same generation.