Khabarovsk Bridge

Khabarovsk Bridge (1916) is a railway bridge that carries the Trans-Siberian Railway across the Amur River near the city of Khabarovsk, Russia. Measuring some 2,590 meters (about 8,500 feet) in length, the structure remained the longest bridge in Imperial Russia, Soviet Union and Asia for decades.

The bridge was scheduled to be constructed at a cost of 13,500,000 Russian rubles to designs by the eminent bridge builder Lavr Proskuryakov in merely 26 months. However, a year after construction work began on July 30, 1913 the First World War broke out. Since the bridge spans were manufactured in Warsaw, they had to be brought to Khabarovsk by sea all the way around Eurasia - in fall of 1914, a merchant ship carrying the last two spans was sunk in the Indian Ocean by the German cruiser Emden delaying the completion of the bridge by more than a year. The bridge was finally completed for an official opening on October 5, 1916. It was named "Alekseyevsky" after Tsesarevich Alexis.

Five years later, two of the eighteen spans were blown up by the retreating Red Army. The bridge was repaired in 1925 and functioned until a thorough reconstruction was carried out in 1999, when a new bridge carrying automobile and rail traffic on two levels was built right next to the old one. The original spans of the old bridge were subsequently dismantled, though its supports remain.

The reconstructed Khabarovsk Bridge is depicted on the 5,000 Russian ruble banknote.

References

* [http://www.transsib.ru/Article/article-vb01.htm Khabarovsk Bridge] (Russian language)