Kuznechny Bridge

Kuznechny Bridge

Built	no later than 1870
Demolished	after 1938, no later 1941
Architect	Unknown
Coordinates	49.98629,36.24303

Kuznechny, aka Mikhailovsky, bridge (Кузнечный мост, Михайловский мост in Russian) - a now-defunct bridge across the Kharkiv River. It connected Kuznechnaya Street with Mikhailovskaya Street (now Shota Rustaveli Street), which was the reason for the double name of the bridge. The exact dates of the existence of the bridge are unknown, but in 1870 it was already there. It was destroyed between 1938 and 1941, as on the city plan of 1938 it is still there, but on the aerial photograph of 1941 it does not appear. Since the end of the XIX century the bridge was largely used for the transport of coal from Balashovka to First Kharkiv power plant.

This bridge should not be confused with the Podolsk dam which also was situated nearby.

History

The original bridge was made of wood. At first, coal was brought to the power plant by carts, and later a narrow-gauge railway was laid (as it is also called, a tram-electric locomotive line). The rails of this branch passed closerto the river than Kuznechnaya street, through the yards past the former subway-builders polyclinic, the current 10th school, and to the current territory of the Oblenergo substation.

In 1912, the design of a three-span iron-concrete bridge began, the project was developed by engineers Beggrov and Polyakov (or, possibly, Belyakov). Initially, it was planned to spend 75 thousand rubles on the construction, later the cost increased to 110 thousand.

On June 19, 1912, the Kharkiv River overflowed so much that it flooded the wooden bridge. The movement was restored only in the spring of 1913. At the same time, a decision was made to build a new reinforced concrete bridge, taking part of the funds from the fund for the construction new power plant. The construction of the new bridge was never started until the beginning of the World War I followed by Civil War, during which the power plant went out of order and the need for a bridge, largely used to transport coal to the power plant, disappeared.

During the Civil War, the bridge played an important role in the Kharkiv operation of the Armed Forces of South Russia. Having got off the cars on June 23, 1919 a few kilometers before Osnova station, Drozdovites in the morning of June 24 attacked the positions of the Reds near the station, overturned them, and pursuing the retreating along the railway line to Kharkiv-Levada station, crossed the Kharkiv River along the Kuznechny bridge to the power station and entered the central part of the city along Kuznechnaya Street.

Gallery

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  Bridges on the river. Kharkov. In the foreground is the Blacksmith's Bridge.

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  Kuznechny bridge on the maps of Kharkov in different years.

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  Kuznechny bridge on the map of Kharkov 1928

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  Remains of the Kuznechny Bridge supports.

Source

This article in Russian