Smolensky Metro Bridge

The Smolensky Metro Bridge is a single-span steel arch bridge across the Moskva River, carrying the Filyovskaya metro line between Smolenskaya and Kievskaya stations; it is the oldest metro bridge in Russia. Train service to Kievskaya opened on the bridge on March 20, 1937, and it has remained an integral part of one of the first sections of the Moscow Metro ever since.

The design was developed by engineers Nikolai Polikarpov and Pyotr Antonov, the architectural treatment was done by brothers Konstantin and Yuri Yakovlev, and two professors from the Moscow Institute of Railway Engineers, Streletsky and Yevgrafov, served as consultants. Even before work began on the metro’s second stage, a competition was held for the bridge’s design, and the jury chose the most restrained of the proposed options: the only decoration was a steel metro emblem in the keystone of the arch and cast-iron vases on the shore abutments. The bridge carries two tracks with a gauge spacing of 3.55 meters; its alignment is almost straight, with only a gentle curve beginning on the right bank that guides the line toward Kievsky Station.

The structure’s foundation consists of two shallow arches, 150 meters long each, with a rise of just over 11 meters. The arches were assembled along circular templates, and only after the track superstructure had been laid on top did the metal take on its calculated parabolic shape. In addition to the main span, the bridge includes five smaller reinforced-concrete shore arches. The river piers rest on massive flat caissons of more than 700 square meters each, sunk nearly fifteen meters down to a layer of limestone.

The bridge’s fate shifted along with the development of the metro: in spring 1953 trains of the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line were diverted onto a new deep-level route, and the crossing was left without regular service for several years. It was not restored until November 7, 1958, this time as part of the new Filyovskaya line, which used both the bridge and the old stations from the 1930s. In 1982 the approaches to the bridge were enclosed in a noise-absorbing concrete casing, leaving open only the sections above the embankments and the river, and three years later a major overhaul was carried out with a temporary suspension of service.

Between 2005 and 2012 the approach to the bridge on the Smolenskaya side was incorporated into the building of a traction substation, while the former substation building nearby was demolished, freeing the land for commercial development. In 2019 dynamic lighting was installed on the bridge, adjusting to the length of daylight hours and operating in weekday, evening, and holiday modes; at the same time the historical lighting scheme was restored and the structures were fitted with visors to shield the eyes of train drivers and passengers from excess light.

Thanks to its striking silhouette, the bridge has appeared many times on film and television: it can be seen in Dziga Vertov’s 1937 documentary “Lullaby,” in the comedies “True Friends,” “Beware of the Car,” “Seven Nannies,” and “Gentlemen of Fortune,” and in Valery Syutkin’s music video “42 Minutes.” Today the Smolensky Metro Bridge remains not only a functioning engineering structure but also one of the recognizable images of the old part of the Moscow Metro.