Glazkovsky Bridge

"Nice!"

Shahzad A.

"The Glazkovsky Bridge over the Angara River is the oldest operating bridge in Irkutsk, a monument to the history of technology. Connects the city center with Glazkovsky suburb. Construction time: 1934-1936. Former names: Reinforced concrete bridge named after. V.I. Lenin, Old Bridge, Angarsky Bridge, Old Angarsky Bridge.
The bridge rests on 5 river and 32 bank supports. Its total length is 1245 m. Of the 4 spans, the central ones are 80 m long, and the outer ones are 70 m long. In addition to the arched part, the complex of bridge structures includes an overpass over the railway rails, 2 overpasses and 4 ramps. The bridge was built to accommodate four-lane traffic, including a double-track tram, as well as pedestrian traffic. The width of the bridge between the railings is 18 m.
Being one of the largest bridges in the country for its time, it has undoubted architectural merits: the combination of semicircular arches with vertical pilasters and edges extending from them gives the bridge design lightness and harmony.
Construction of the bridge began in 1931 and was dictated by the need to firmly connect the city center with the railway station, the rapidly developing left bank part of Irkutsk. Construction conditions turned out to be difficult: fast river flow, great depth, low winter temperatures. The first years of work were sluggish due to a lack of material resources, personnel, and interruptions in the development of project documentation. Only in 1935, having achieved improved financial and material supplies, the builders significantly accelerated the pace of work. On 2nd Zheleznodorozhnaya Street a whole town of construction workers appeared with a club, shops, and residential buildings. The granite used to line the bridge supports was brought from the outskirts of the village of Marituy, gravel and sand were brought from the shore of Irkut.
The authors of the project are engineer P. N. Polikarpov and Klyucharev, architect I. A. French.
In those years, it was possible to cross the Angara by rowing boats, and even then only in good weather. It was impossible to get to the opposite shore in a storm. A little later, in 1857, new high-speed boats appeared in Irkutsk. If it took half an hour to cross with a regular rowing boat, then with the new one it would take only five minutes. For this, Irkutsk residents nicknamed them “airplanes.”
And just four years later, the first real crossing finally appeared - a pontoon bridge. It was built for the arrival of Tsarevich Nicholas, the future Russian Emperor Nicholas II. By the way, it was he who cut the ribbon at the grand opening of the new bridge. Therefore, the pontoon crossing began to be called Nikolaev. But in bad weather, the pontoons were torn off and carried away with the current. Sometimes they were caught even in the Usolye-Sibirskoye area.
Meanwhile, Irkutsk was growing, trade was developing, and such interruptions at the crossing were unnecessary. Therefore, city authorities began to seriously think about the need to build a permanent bridge across the Angara. This issue was first discussed at a meeting of the Irkutsk Duma in 1906. It was then calculated that the construction of the bridge would cost the city treasury 1.8 million rubles. But when the project was ready a few years later, it turned out that this money was not enough - 2.3 million rubles were required for the construction of the arched cantilever bridge. Interestingly, the architects developed 10 versions of bridges, and all of them were arched - then this was the most modern direction in bridge construction.
The First World War prevented the start of construction - public money was spent on military needs. Therefore, for several years the projects collected dust on the shelves, waiting in the wings. Construction of the foundation began only in September 1931.
This work was carried out by Moscow specialists. It was very difficult for them. According to eyewitnesses, the Angara behaved very aggressively that year: waves, ice jams - the river did not want to obey the will of man. Nevertheless, the foundation of the bridge was built - four channel supports were erected.
At the same time, the city authorities were deciding how wide the Angarsky Bridge would be. At first they proposed stopping at 11 meters, then they increased the width by 1 meter, and then they came to the conclusion that this would not be enough, and they added almost 2 more meters. In the final version they left 13.8 meters."

Artur Vronskiy

"If you are planning to arrive at Irkutsk Station early in the morning, I recommend crossing this bridge on foot. When you arrive at Irkutsk Station at dawn, taxi drivers will persistently solicit customers. I recommend politely shaking it off and walking to downtown Irkutsk. It wasn't as dangerous as I thought. The view from the bridge during sunrise is especially spectacular."

14 Traveler