Triple Bridge

Where the Griboyedov Canal flows into the Moika, near the Field of Mars, three crossings converge at a single point to form an ensemble rare in world bridge-building history — the Triple Bridge. The composition consists of the Theatre Bridge over the Griboyedov Canal, the Malo-Konyushenny Bridge over the Moika, and a solid dam-bridge between them, which locals call the False Bridge. The three structures connect Spassky, 1st Admiralteysky, and Kazansky islands and are perceived as a single unit, though formally they remain separate crossings.

The first wooden bridge across the Moika appeared here in 1716, and by the late 1730s, under Empress Anna Ioannovna, two wooden drawbridges stood here — the future Pervo-Konyushenny and Malo-Konyushenny bridges, named after the nearby Imperial Main Stables. In 1807, architect Carlo Rossi, who was redeveloping the quarter for the palace of Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, proposed uniting them with a shared pier in the middle of the Moika. The metal design was developed by engineer Yegor Adam and architect Wilhelm Tretter; construction began on June 8, 1829, and the bridge was accepted into service on January 8, 1832.

Both central bridges are single-span, covered by cast-iron arches made of tubbing segments, and are almost identical in width — about 15.6 meters — but differ in length: the Theatre Bridge is 18 meters long, the Malo-Konyushenny Bridge 23 meters, widening to 19 meters at its approaches. On the side of the former Main Stables, the arch of the dam-bridge adjoins the Theatre Bridge, completing the composition. The decoration of the crossings is uniform, in the spirit of late Classicism: railings of vertical spear-shaped bars topped with bud finials, with a mask of the Gorgon Medusa and a crescent moon amid palm branches at the center of each section, while the bridge is lit by gilded torchère lamp posts with round lanterns.

In the early nineteenth century, several Saint Petersburg architects and engineers proposed their own versions of the reconstruction, but the idea of a unified ensemble prevailed over that of a pair of separate bridges. At the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, engineers repeatedly proposed demolishing the bridges and creating a square instead, but no such project was ever approved. In 1936 the roadway was paved with diabase, in 1952 architect Alexander Rotach restored the decoration of the lamps and railings, and in 1999, to a design by engineer Boris Brudno, the crossing was paved with dressed stone and closed to vehicle traffic.

Since 2001 the ensemble has had decorative illumination as part of the "City of Light" program: eight floodlights on steel brackets were installed on each bridge, switched on in November 2002 together with the neighboring Sadovy and Italiansky bridges. Today the bridge is closed to traffic and serves as a pedestrian zone just steps from the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood and the Mikhailovsky Garden. A tradition has taken hold among newlyweds: to ensure family happiness, one should walk across both parts of the bridge and see the reflection in the water.

The Triple Bridge remains a rare example of a solution in which several engineering structures with different purposes are united into a single artistic image without any of them losing its individual identity. For nearly two centuries the ensemble has preserved its historic appearance, and its unified decoration and carefully considered illumination turn an everyday crossing into one of the recognizable symbols of central Saint Petersburg.