Trinity bridge

Trinity Bridge was the third permanent bridge built across the Neva River - after the Lieutenant Shmidt and Palace Bridges - and serves as an important transportation artery from the center of the city to the Petrograd Side. The bridge was built as a present to the city on the occasion of its 200th anniversary in 1903.

An international tender to find the plan for the bridge was one in 1892 by the French firm Batinol, whose plan consisted of a five-span symmetrical bridge. A two-handled rising span on the left bank and a land dike on the right bank were also important features of the design. In the middle of the composition, triple-jointed metal arched girders, or cantilevers, were placed between the forth and fifth piers of the bridge. The cantilever system offered greater strength in the support section and less in the span section, which meant the designers could reduce the height of the girders in the middle section and give the bridge its famous low and slightly arched outline.

Other elements of special interest on Trinity Bridge include the granite icebreaker ledge with a lantern, installed to support the raising span of the bridge and also serving as a lighthouse beacon for approaching vessels.

The artistic elements on top of the bridge are also interesting. The lamps and obelisks, for examples are embellished with beautiful ornate lamps in modernist style. The foundations of the lamps are decorated with the emblem of St. Petersburg - the crossed scepter of the sea and river anchors - and the lamps also designed symbolically in the form of the cross with three round lamps in their original cartridge clips.