Red Bridge (Chernihiv)

Red Bridge
Red Bridge
	Red Bridge, Chernihv
Coordinates	51°29′45″N 31°18′44″E / 51.49575°N 31.31220°E
Carries	Motor vehicles and Pedestrians
Crosses	Stryzhen River
Locale	Chernihiv, Chernihiv Oblast Ukraine
Characteristics
Material	Brick and Stone
History
Designer	V. Ustinov
Construction start	1660
Replaces	1964
Location

The Red Bridge (Ukrainian: Червоний Міст) is a brick-and-stone bridge in the city of Chernihiv in Ukraine. The bridge is carries Shevchenko Street over the Strizhen River and it is located just near the Museum of Military History, Park Miskyi Sad and Chernihiv Stadium.^[1]^[2]

History

On the beginning in the 17th century on the Strizhen River, there were Bishop's ponds, aimed at servicing the mills located on the corresponding dams. One of them, the Dung Dam, had a bridge that connected the Stolbovoy Glukhovsky Way with Chernigov. This transition probably could have appeared as early as the 1660s; as of 1706, it has already been marked on the "Abris of Chernihiv" - the oldest discovered plan of the city. In the spring of 1773, a great flood washed away the dam.^[3] In 1783, a new wooden bridge on stilts was erected on the Strizhen River; it is likely that A. Shafonsky remembers it in 1786 under the name Red - the first recorded mention of the name of the bridge.^[4] The length of the bridge was 50 fathoms (about 100 m). The building was repaired and rebuilt several times. So, it is known that already in 1786, the governor of Chernigov A. Miloradovich demanded a major overhaul of the covering of the roadway of the bridge with the so-called thick forest, instead of the fascinator and vines adopted at that time. In 1885, a flood swept away the Red Bridge. In a short time, it was restored, but the new height of the bridge turned out to be inconvenient for travel, therefore, in 1900, work was carried out to lower it by about a meter, for which 500 rubles were spent from the city treasury. In the spring of 1911, another flood destroyed the bridge again; temporarily, the main traffic between the territories of the city and Zastrizhenya was taken over by the newly built Seminarsky Bridge. Eventually, during 1914-1916, a new bridge was built on reinforced concrete piles, which included three reinforced concrete girders with cast iron parapets along the sidewalks.

During the Second World War, the bridge was damaged, but despite this, Soviet troops entered the city along it.^[5]

In 1964, in connection with the opening of trolleybus traffic, according to the project of V. Ustinov, the bridge was reconstructed and expanded. On both sides, concrete piles were added, on which the sidewalks were completed; the old bridge became the carriageway of the reconstructed one.

The modern bridge is painted red, has polished red granite trim and antique styled lanterns.