The Singing Bridge is the closest bridge to Palace Square; it is even considered its continuation. It is the fourth widest bridge in St. Petersburg (after the Blue, Kazansky, and Aptekarsky bridges). The bridge connects Kazansky and 2nd Admiralteysky Islands across the Moika River and was formerly called the "Yellow" bridge. The Moika is the only river in St. Petersburg over which bridges with "colorful" names have been built. They were constructed by different specialists at different times. These are the Yellow (now Singing) Bridge at Palace Square, the Green (later Police) Bridge at the corner of the Moika River and Nevsky Prospect, the Red Bridge at the intersection of Gorokhovaya Street and the Moika Embankment, and finally, the widest bridge in our city, the Blue Bridge at Isaakievskaya Square.
They received their "colorful" names according to the decree of the Commission on the Construction of St. Petersburg in 1738. This order was strictly followed, and the brightly painted, cheerful-colored bridge structures over the Moika River served as landmarks for the city’s residents and foreign visitors at that time. Three of the colored bridges on the Moika still retain the names given to them by the order of Empress Anna Ioannovna in 1738 and are considered "colorful." Today, the Green, Red, and Blue bridges are regularly painted in their "family" colors.
"Last Saturday, July 22, the foundation of the Singing Bridge on the Moika, near Palace Square, between the buildings of the Guard Headquarters and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, took place. This bridge... will serve as the completion of the magnificent Palace Square. It is being erected from cast iron on granite abutments and will be one of the most beautiful in the capital. Its construction... is entrusted to Major General Adam. The casting of cast iron parts and decorations is carried out at the state-owned Alexandrovsky factory," wrote the newspaper "Northern Bee."
The span is covered by a rigid cast-iron tubular arch. The casting of cast iron parts and decorations is carried out at the state-owned Alexandrovsky factory. The supports are rubble masonry with granite cladding. Its width is owed to the military.
There is an interesting St. Petersburg legend regarding the creation of the Singing Bridge. Until 1834, there was a boat ferry at this location. At that time, Count Yuri Alexandrovich Golovkin, a distant relative of the ruling Romanov family, lived in one of the houses on the left bank of the Moika.
According to the legend, one day the count, on his way to an audience with the emperor, tried to board a boat but slipped, fell, and ended up swimming in the river. The next day, Nicholas I paid the count a high visit. The sovereign wished the count good health and declared his will: that a bridge should be built at the place where the accident occurred to prevent similar incidents from happening again. This story became known thanks to the count’s secretary and translator, Mr. Mikhailov, who told it to the world. According to him, due to the count’s great height, he did not fully submerge in the water.
This is supposedly the reason why the Singing Bridge was built. However, this story may be just another beautiful legend of St. Petersburg, as it is not supported by historical facts.
When the Alexander Column was installed on Palace Square, a grand military parade took place there. It involved regiments distinguished in the Patriotic War of 1812, numbering about 100,000 people.
"No pen can describe the grandeur of that moment when, at the sound of three cannon shots, suddenly from all the streets, as if born from the earth, orderly masses marched with the thunder of drums, to the sounds of the Paris March... This magnificent, unique spectacle in the world lasted two hours," recalled Vasily Zhukovsky.
On that day, a bridge was needed for the troops to pass. The crossing project was executed by Auguste de Montferrand (who also built the Alexander Column). The bridge was wooden. Two years later, engineer Yegor Adam built a major new bridge here, simultaneously hiding the Moika in granite, reducing it by several meters. The Singing Bridge was built in just sixteen months, which was almost a record at the time. The single-span arched Singing Bridge was erected on granite abutments. The span itself consisted of hollow cast-iron boxes connected by bolts. Interestingly, a year later, a special commission inspecting the Singing Bridge found 50 bolts and 27 nuts missing. One can guess what the locals used them for by reading the famous story by Chekhov. The men stole the nuts and used them as fishing weights. And when caught, everyone was surprised how anything could happen because of one unscrewed nut?
The first to cross the new bridge in a carriage was the sovereign himself on November 24, 1840. Remarkably, it was never majorly repaired until 2004! Only in 1937 was the cobblestone on the Singing Bridge replaced with asphalt. The main decoration is the cast-iron openwork railing of the Singing Bridge. The bridge is about 24 meters long and 72 meters wide.
The bridge appeared in the famous film "The Incredible Adventures of Italians in Russia," where the characters parked their car on the Singing Bridge right in front of the Capella building.
Sources:
https://petersburglike.ru/2017-06-15/pevcheskij-most-u-dvorcovoj/
https://www.citywalls.ru/house19217.html
https://peterburg.center/maps/pevcheskiy-most-v-sankt-peterburge.html
https://mostotrest-spb.ru/bridges/pevcheskij
Aspidov Albert Pavlovich, Petersburg Arabesques
wiki-org.ru/wiki/Певческий_мост
Zuev Georgy Ivanovich: The Moika River Flows... From Fontanka to Nevsky Prospect
