Egyptian Bridge

The Egyptian Bridge spans the Fontanka River in the Admiralteysky District of St Petersburg, connecting Pokrovsky Island with Bezymyanny Island along the route of Lermontovsky Avenue; it is included on the list of cultural heritage sites of federal significance.

The first bridge on this site was a chain suspension bridge, built in 1825–1826 to a design by the engineer V. A. Christianovich — its construction largely borrowed from the neighbouring Panteleymonovsky Bridge near the Summer Garden. The granite piers were built by the contractor Gavriil Vasilyev from blocks left over from the demolished moats of the Mikhailovsky (Engineers') Castle. The metal for the span and for the four sphinx figures was cast at the works of the industrialist Charles Baird, following models by the sculptor Sokolov. The span was suspended on three rows of chains, and the portals were adorned with round columns and low buttresses. The decoration was carried out in the spirit of ancient Egyptian art, featuring a winged solar disc and gilded details, which is how the crossing came to be called the Egyptian Bridge; in earlier documents it had been referred to as the Great Chain Bridge. The crossing was ceremonially opened at the end of September 1826.

After nearly eight decades of service, the structure collapsed on 20 January 1905, while a cavalry squadron was crossing it: the deck fell onto the river's ice, and only three horses were killed. According to the city commission's findings, the cause was a hidden flaw in the metal of one of the chain links — this case is often cited afterwards as an example of destructive resonance. Only the stone piers and the sphinxes survived from the old bridge; a temporary wooden crossing was erected that same summer and stood until the mid-1950s. During the siege the structure suffered from artillery shelling, and one sphinx was damaged and later restored by conservators.

The permanent bridge in its current form opened on 30 December 1955: the structural design was developed by the engineer V. V. Demchenko, the architectural design by P. Areshev and V. Vasilkovsky, and construction was carried out by a division of the Lenmostostroy trust. It is a single-span metal frame structure roughly 53 metres long that crosses the river at an angle, and its roadway, more than 20 metres wide, accommodates four traffic lanes and tram tracks, which opened in November 1956. The surviving sphinxes were returned to their original granite pedestals at the approaches. In 1988 the concrete parapets were replaced with granite ones, and in 1989 one sphinx, struck by a car, fell into the water and was raised and restored. A complete renovation of all four sculptures was finished in 2006 in time for another of the city's anniversaries; the sphinx figures are included in the country's museum fund.