The Lower Lebyazhiy Bridge is located at the mouth of the Lebyazhya Canal and connects the 1st Admiralty Island with the Summer Garden Island. The length of the bridge is 19.55 meters, and the width is 19.85 meters. Structurally, it is a single-span arched bridge with a span structure in the form of a reinforced concrete vault of a box-shaped outline, designed as an elastic arch. The bridge railings are cast iron artistic grilles on cast iron pedestals, made according to a design attributed to architect Carlo Rossi.
The Lebyazhya Canal was dug between 1711 and 1719 to drain the marshy area where Tsaritsyn Meadow (now Mars Field) was laid out. Initially, the canal was called the Summer Canal, after the Summer Garden, but it was later renamed Lebyazhya Canal because swans from the artificial ponds of the Summer Garden began to settle there. In the first half of the 18th century, four wooden bridges were thrown over it, one of which was the Lower Lebyazhiy Bridge.
The first wooden drawbridge in the lower part of the Lebyazhya Canal appeared by 1733. Built according to the design of the Dutch master Herman van Boles, the crossing was a wooden beam system structure supported on a pile foundation. It was an arched-type bridge with a gentle vault and wooden railings. The supports and span structure were sheathed with boards painted to look like stone. At the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries, the bridge was briefly called the 1st Tsaritsyn Bridge, after the nearby Tsaritsyn Meadow.
The modern names Upper and Lower Lebyazhiy Bridges have been known since 1849.
In 1836-1837, during the redevelopment of the area around the Engineering Castle, the Lower Lebyazhiy Bridge was rebuilt in stone. Its vault was made of brick, and the supports were made of rubble masonry on pile grillages. The facades and supports were faced with granite. Construction of the stone bridge began in 1836 and lasted only six months. Such haste immediately affected its strength. After removing the formwork, the brick vault cracked, and the crack grew larger every year.
In 1842, a commission inspected the bridge and recorded "opening of joints" at the base of the granite arches. The bridge was repaired by driving copper wedges into the opened joints, but in 1846 it was found that the wedges had fallen out, and the brick vault had settled and was crumbling. The builders failed to eliminate the deformations.
In 1847–1848, the crossing was repaired again, but the bridge continued to deteriorate. In the same years, a reconstruction project was developed but not implemented. No stone bridge in St. Petersburg underwent as many rebuilds and reconstructions as this one.
According to the inventory description, in 1880 the span structure of the bridge was a brick vault of parabolic shape, faced with granite on the facades. The railings consisted of cast iron sections installed between quadrangular pedestals. The sidewalks were fenced on the inner side with a cobblestone apron with granite posts, three on each side, and the roadway was paved with wooden blocks.
In the early 1900s, defects were again found in the new brick vault. In 1904, the bridge was inspected—the results were discouraging. The commission declared the bridge's condition unsatisfactory. In 1907, another reconstruction project was drawn up, according to which the span structure was to consist of lattice metal trusses. Neither this nor subsequent projects were realized, and the bridge continued to deteriorate.
Only in 1924-1925, according to a project by engineers Vasilyev and Salarev, was the bridge reconstructed, rebuilt into a single-span reinforced concrete arch. The historical appearance of the Lower Lebyazhiy Bridge did not change.
The most recent repair of the crossing was carried out in 2002, for the 300th anniversary of Saint Petersburg.
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