The Finland Railway Bridge are a pair of parallel bridges across the Neva River

Neva River

The Neva is a river in northwestern Russia flowing from Lake Ladoga through the western part of Leningrad Oblast to the Neva Bay of the Gulf of Finland. Despite its modest length , it is the third largest river in Europe in terms of average discharge .The Neva is the only river flowing from Lake...

 in Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

. The bridges link the railway networks in the north of St Petersburg with those in the south of St Petersburg. The same singular name is applied to both of the bridges.

History

The first bridge was built in 1910–1912 by engineers Nikolay Appolonovich Belelyubsky, Grigory Grigorievich Krivoshein, I.G. Aleksandrov and architect Vladimir Petrovich Apyshkov. As constructed, it was a steel bridge 538 metres long, carrying two tracks and a pedestrian walkway. There are four equal spans, each 110 metres apart and a shorter double-flight drawspan in the centre.

The bridge was primarily funded by the Grand Duchy of Finland

Grand Duchy of Finland

The Grand Duchy of Finland was the predecessor state of modern Finland. It existed 1809–1917 as part of the Russian Empire and was ruled by the Russian czar as Grand Prince.- History :...

 because of the strategic value it delivered by connecting the Finland railway and the Finnish State Railways with the Russian Railways

Russian Railways

The Russian Railways , is the government owned national rail carrier of the Russian Federation, headquartered in Moscow. The Russian Railways operate over of common carrier routes as well as a few hundred kilometers of industrial routes, making it the second largest network in the world exceeded...

 system.

In 1983, the reefer (ship)

Reefer (ship)

A refrigerator ship is a type of ship typically used to transport perishable commodities which require temperature-controlled transportation, mostly fruits, meat, fish, vegetables, dairy products and other foodstuffs....

 ship Komsomolets Tatarii, carrying 500 tonnes of fish hit the bridge. The ship then sank several hundred metres downstream, halfway to the Alexander Nevsky Bridge

Alexander Nevsky Bridge

The Alexander Nevsky Bridge in St Petersburg, Russia is named after the legendary Russian military commander and politician Alexander Nevsky. The bridge connects Alexander Nevsky Square and Zanevsky prospect thus linking the southern and the northern parts of the city...

.

During 1983–1987, a second bridge was built by the engineer O. Rusin, running parallel to the first bridge. The spans of the new bridge repeated the contours of the existing bridge. The drawspan of the new bridge has one span.

In 1988, the old bridge was closed to traffic because of serious corrosion

Corrosion

Corrosion is the disintegration of an engineered material into its constituent atoms due to chemical reactions with its surroundings. In the most common use of the word, this means electrochemical oxidation of metals in reaction with an oxidant such as oxygen...

 damage. By 1994 the drawing mechanism was decommissioned.

The building of Ladozhsky Rail Terminal in 2002/2003 lead to the old bridge being completely overhauled. A new drawing mechanism and drawflights were installed.