Chain Bridge (Budapest)
Coordinates: 47 ° 29 ′ 56 ″ N , 19 ° 2 ′ 37 ″ E
| Szechenyi Chain Bridge | ||
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| Official name | Széchenyi lánchíd | |
| use | Street | |
| Crossing of | Danube | |
| place | Budapest in Hungary | |
| construction | Chain bridge | |
| overall length | 375 meters | |
| width | 12.5 meters | |
| Longest span | 202 meters | |
| Headroom | 6.5 meters | |
| start of building | 1839 | |
| completion | 1849 | |
| opening | November 21, 1849 | |
| planner | William Tierney Clark | |
| location | ||
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| Above sea level | 98 m | |
The Chain Bridge ( Hungarian Széchenyi lánchíd , "Széchenyi Chain Bridge "), which spans the Danube in Budapest , was built from 1839 to 1849 at the suggestion of the Hungarian reformer Count István Széchenyi , whose name it bears. It is the oldest and most famous of Budapest's nine road bridges over the Danube.
description
The Chain Bridge is a suspension bridge and connects István Széchenyi Square ( Széchenyi István tér , formerly Roosevelt tér ), which forms the end of downtown Pest , with Adam Clark Square ( Clark Ádám tér ) in front of Ofner Castle Hill , now Budaer Castle Hill . The classicist building, located south of the Hungarian Parliament , is supported by two triumphal arch-like supporting pillars through which the iron chains of the 375 meter long bridge run, hence the name “Chain Bridge”. The pier gates have a passage width of 6.5 meters, the weight of the iron construction is given as 2000 tons.
prehistory
Since 16./17. In the 19th century, a pontoon bridge was occasionally built to cross the Danube , from 1776 this was regularly built from 46 floating bodies in spring and connected the two cities of Buda and Pest, which were still independent at the time. However, it had to be dismantled again and again before winter and could only be rebuilt in spring because the ice masses of the freezing Danube would have destroyed the pontoon bridge. That is why there was no fixed connection between the two cities in the winter months, which severely restricted the free movement of people and goods and sometimes brought it to a standstill. Crossing the Danube was only possible in winter when the ice cover was closed, which not only limited the times, but also the transport weights. At the beginning of the 19th century, iron as a building material was only produced and used in Great Britain in the appropriate quality, but on the European mainland bridges were only built with many pillars made of wood and stone, nobody dared to make one from these conventional materials To build such an important bridge over a river with heavy ice drift , as wooden pillars would hardly have withstood the ice drift of the Danube for a long time.
construction
István Széchenyi initiated the founding of the Budapest Bridge Association in 1832, the task of which was to collect all known bridge designs. In addition, the association should work out a new design taking into account the existing geological surveys of the area.
The initiative of Széchenyi benefited from a devastating flood during the snowmelt in March 1838, which led to devastating destruction in both places. Pest, which had been the seat of the kingdom's administrative administration since 1723, and Buda on the opposite bank of the Danube were important cities in Hungary's trade and administration system. By building a bridge between the two cities, the exchange of goods in Hungary should also be promoted and an overall modernization should take place. This is why the bridge played a key role in Széchenyi's traffic concept. Since the Viennese government was skeptical of the bridge construction and also financed the railway construction, the bridge should be private, i.e. H. through the issue of shares. For the financial part, Széchenyi brought in the Greek-Austrian entrepreneur Georg Simon von Sina , who owned land and had numerous business connections in Hungary.
The renowned English engineer William Tierney Clark was commissioned to design the chain bridge . The construction management was given to his namesake Adam Clark , who settled in Hungary after the construction work was completed. The space between the Chain Bridge and the tunnel through the castle hill was dedicated to him. Széchenyi was not only the initiator, he was also responsible for organizing the construction. As President of the Budapest Transport Committee in the early 1840s, he obtained the building material from various countries, as it was impossible, for example, to get the 2000 tons of steel needed for the bridge in Hungary.
He also planned the construction of a tunnel under the castle hill and a railway connection between Pest and Fiume , today's Rijeka . Preparations for the first pillar began on July 28, 1840, when wooden piles were driven into the banks to enclose the construction site. After this work, which took two years, the ceremonial laying of the foundation stone in the construction pit of the Pest abutment began on August 24, 1842 . On November 20, 1849, after long construction work interrupted by the revolution , it was completed and handed over to the population.
A span of 202 meters is bridged between the two pylons. This made it the longest bridge of this type for the next 30 years . Széchenyi was never allowed to cross his bridge, since after a collapse in September 1848 he spent the rest of his life in the Döblinger mental hospital in Vienna .
In addition, the first steam funicular in Hungary, the Budavári Sikló , was built on the Buda side in the years 1868 to 1870 next to the tunnel for the workers streaming to the castle from Pest .
reconstruction
In 1915, the original construction was replaced by a stronger one, as it could no longer cope with the volume of traffic. The wooden parts were replaced by iron and steel.
This second bridge consisted of over 5000 tons of steel, but the two bridge piers remained unchanged. Material was reused wherever possible. Much could be produced in Hungary, but the new chain heads on the pylons came from London .
On January 18, 1945, at the end of the Second World War , it fell victim, like all other Danube bridges, to the demolition squads of the withdrawing German army. On November 21, 1949, after long reconstruction work, it was reopened for the third time on the 100th anniversary of the first inauguration of the bridge.
The bridge has been illuminated since 1957. In 1999 the 150th birthday of the bridge was celebrated with new lighting.
National symbol
Creation myths
The Chain Bridge is one of the most famous buildings in Budapest and a symbol of the dawn of a national identity. The multitude of traditions and myths shows that the Chain Bridge plays an important role in the history of the Hungarians . One of the many traditions about the bridge says that the builder István Széchenyi wanted to visit his girlfriend and later wife Crescence Seilern in Pest often and dry-footed, and for this reason began planning the chain bridge. The Hungarian writer Ferenc Herczeg wrote a play A Híd (“The Bridge”) about it. Another legend tells that the sculptor forgot about the lions' tongues, which led to his suicide. Another legend about Count István Széchenyi tells that it would have taken a week before he could cross the Danube to his father's funeral. So he decided to plan the bridge.
Postage stamps
The Chain Bridge has been immortalized on some of the Hungarian Post's stamps, which underlines its status in the country.
Coins
The 200 forint coins made of 500 silver, minted in 1992 and 1993 ( National Bank ) and 1994 to 1998 ( Ferenc Deák ), formed the bridge over the value indication. These coins are no longer in circulation. The 200 forint coin in circulation that was valid at the beginning of the 21st century also depicts the chain bridge on the lapel.
literature
- David J. Brown: Bridges. Bold constructions over rivers, valleys, seas . Callwey, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-7667-1645-X
- Richard J. Dietrich: Fascination Bridges - 1st edition . Callwey, Munich 1998, pp. 170-177, ISBN 3-7667-1326-4
- Judith Dupré: Bridges. The history of famous bridges . Könemann, Cologne 1998, ISBN 3-8290-0409-5 .
- Imre Gáll, Szilvia Andrea Holló: The Széchenyi Chain Bridge and Adam Clark . City Hall Publishing House, Budapest 1999, ISBN 963-8376-91-0 .
- Ralf Thomas Göllner: On the history of the Széchenyi chain bridge in Budapest. In: Hungary Yearbook, Volume 31, 2011–2013, pp. 203–238.
- Bernhard Graf: Bridges that connect the world . Prestel, Munich 2002, pp. 66-67, ISBN 3-7913-2700-3
- József Lengyel: The Chain Bridge - History of the Chain Bridge in Budapest . Verlag der Nation, Berlin 1982
Web links
- DBridges - Chain Bridge ( Memento from February 25, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (Hungarian)
- Aerial views of the bridge
Individual evidence
- ↑ Vereinigte Ofner-Pester Zeitung, volume 1832-45, edition of July 3, 1836. Retrieved on May 21, 2016 .
- ↑ Historical pictures of Budapest and Chain Bridge (English)
- ↑ Information about the Chain Bridge ( Memento of the original dated August 2, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
