Laundry Bridge, Palace Embankment, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 191187
Most of us have walked many times over the small humped bridge across the Fontanka River near the Summer Garden, and everyone is surprised when they learn the name of the bridge – Laundry Bridge. It turns out that the Laundry Bridge got its name thanks to the Palace laundries located along the embankment – the Laundry Yard. These were laundries that served the royal family. They were located at the corner of Sergievskaya (now Tchaikovsky Street) and the Fontanka River. They no longer exist today. This is not just a bridge, but an architectural creation of its time. Its construction dates back to the period when Baroque gave way to Classicism.
The Laundry Bridge is located along the axis of the Palace Embankment at the source of the Fontanka River, connecting the 1st Admiralty Island with the Nameless Island and the Palace Embankment with the Kutuzov Embankment. The bridge is three-span, stone, arched; its length is 40.9 meters, the length along the back edges of the abutments is 39.2 meters, width is 20.6 meters, and width along the cornice is 15.7 meters. The span structure is a hinged-free arch, a continuous curved stone vault faced with granite. The middle arch is wider and higher than the symmetrical side arches. The abutments and piers are stone on a pile foundation, faced with granite. Oval lucarnes (openings) were created above the intermediate supports to lighten the stone masonry of the bridge. The railing is a solid granite parapet. Granite slabs are laid on the sidewalks. The roadway is separated from the sidewalk by a granite curb. The sidewalks on the approaches have ten steps on each of the four sides to descend to the level of the embankments. The embankments were dressed with stone and faced with granite, rebuilt in stone along with the bridges in the center of Petersburg. The original project, drawn up in 1762, provided for the construction of a three-span stone bridge with a wooden draw span. However, in the final embankment project, the bridge became non-drawbridge. The bridge was built during 1766–1769 according to the design of architect Rossi and the “quadrator master” Nasonov, simultaneously with the construction of granite embankments near the Summer Garden.
The bridge’s construction was so strong that it stood for more than a hundred years without repair. In the same year, the City Commission decided to rebuild the bridge, but only in 1909 did the City Duma commission engineer Efimyev to prepare a reconstruction project in two variants – with stone and metal spans. However, the Academy of Arts opposed changing the appearance of the Laundry Bridge. The bridge reconstruction was carried out only in 1926. The bridge was fenced on the Neva and Fontanka sides with crossbars, and water from the Fontanka near the bridge was pumped out. The repair was supervised by engineer Vasiliev and took six months. The Laundry Bridge has been preserved to this day without any changes; only the slope of the roadway was softened, and the “hump” became smaller.
Several legends are associated with this bridge. It is believed that the bridge was used as cells for debtors. There are round grated windows above the supports, behind which offenders sat while their relatives collected the required sum. During floods, a debtor could literally end up at the bottom. Another legend says that drunks sat behind these grates, and the bridge was the city’s first sobering-up station. In reality, these windows with grates served to reduce water pressure on the supports during floods. Also, according to old tales, Petersburgers often encountered ghosts of souls killed by Anna Ioannovna’s favorite Biron here. Biron’s secret services were located on the left bank of the Fontanka, near the Laundry Bridge, at its mouth where it flows out of the Neva.
Sources:
https://mostotrest-spb.ru/bridges/prachechnyj
Sindalovsky Naum Alexandrovich, Ghosts of the Northern Capital. Legends and Myths of St. Petersburg’s Looking Glass.
