Upper Lebyazhiy Bridge

The Upper Lebyazhiy Bridge is located at the source of the Lebyazhya Canal and connects the 1st Admiralty Island with the Summer Garden Island. The length of the crossing is 12.5 meters, the width is 30.4 meters. Structurally, it is a single-span stone bridge with a parabolic arch in the form of a hingedless arch. The facades of the bridge are faced with granite. The abutments are massive stone structures made of rubble masonry on a pile foundation, faced with granite.

The railing is a solid granite parapet adjoining the parapets of the Palace Embankment. The sidewalks are paved with granite slabs. The sidewalks are separated from the roadway by a granite curb.

The Lebyazhya Canal was dug between 1711 and 1719 to drain the marshy area where the Tsaritsyn Meadow (now Mars Field) was laid out. The canal was originally called the Summer Canal, after the Summer Garden, but was later renamed Lebyazhya Canal because swans from the artificial ponds of the Summer Garden began to settle there. 

In Peter the Great’s time, four wooden bridges were thrown over the Lebyazhya Canal, the first of which was built between 1711 and 1715 at the source of the canal. It was a wooden crossing with a liftable draw span, constructed according to the design of the Dutch master Herman van Boles.

In 1754, the bridge was rebuilt in wood. In 1767–1768, as part of the construction of granite embankments along the Neva, a single-span stone arch bridge was built in the upper reaches of the Lebyazhya Canal, which has survived almost unchanged to this day. The only difference: originally, gas lamps were installed on the bridge abutments. Presumably, by the end of the 19th century, the lamps were lost.

The bridge project was developed by architect I.L. Rossi and “master of squaring” T.I. Nasonov. The bridge was named Lebyazhiy (at that time, the Lower Lebyazhiy Bridge was also called by the same name).

Between 1836 and 1846, the crossing was renamed Lebyazhiy Stone — unlike the other wooden bridges over the canal. The modern names Upper and Lower Lebyazhiy (or Upper-Lebyazhiy and Lower-Lebyazhiy) have been known since 1849.

The modern names Upper and Lower Lebyazhiy bridges have been known since 1849, indicating the location of the bridges along the flow of the Lebyazhya Canal.

In 1840–1845, inspections of the Upper Lebyazhiy Bridge revealed settlement of the supports and deformation of the arch masonry. In 1847, a reconstruction project was prepared: the parabolic arch was planned to be replaced with a new brick arch with a circular outline, and the springing points of the arch were to be raised 1 meter above the river level. This project was not implemented, nor was the next one developed in 1908 by engineer K.V. Efimyev. Only in 1927–1928, according to the project of engineer Krushelnitsky, the Upper Lebyazhiy Bridge was majorly repaired without changing its structure and architectural appearance.

In 1934, the arch insulation was repaired.

Sources:

https://mostotrest-spb.ru/bridges/verhnij-lebyazhij