St. Petersburg Bridges at Night
St. Petersburg offers visitors many interesting and beautiful attractions by day. But some of those same attractions are even more amazing at night, especially the city’s numerous bridges criss crossing the Neva (Нева) river. They are a must see attraction for any visit.
As surprising as it might seem, St. Petersburg was originally designed by its founder, Peter the Great (Пётр Великий), to be a city traversable only by boat in the summer and sledge in winter. However, after his death, the city soon built its first bridges. These early bridges were very simple pontoon bridges allowing for some traffic to cross the river. Finally, in 1850, the city got its very first permanent bridge across the Neva known as the Blagoveshchensky Bridge (Благовещенский мост). Soon thereafter, the city built 7 more draw bridges crossing the Neva, which all raise at night to allow river traffic to pass through.
One of the most well known of these Neva draw bridges is the Palace Bridge(Дворцовый мост), which opened in 1916. Centrally located, it connects the Palace Embankment between the Winter Palace and Admiralty to Palace Square. Looking from Vasilievsky Island (Васильевский остров) towards the Winter Palace, you can see one of the most iconic views St. Petersburg has to offer, as the bridge is drawn for the night and the city’s skyline begins to glow in the background.
