The 175th anniversary of the laying of Chain Bridge’s foundation stone

According to rubicon.hu, Palatine Joseph laid the foundation stone of Chain Bridge’s Pest pillar 175 years ago, on the 24^th of August, 1842 in the company of the country’s respectabilities. The 380 metres long construction, which was the first significant and permanent riverine bridge of Hungary, was inaugurated in the November of 1849, after a decade of hard work.

The idea of a bridge over spanning the Danube arose in the 18^th century, but it would’ve been impossible to build a stable and safe bridge with the available technical solutions. The river’s drifting would’ve destroyed medieval stone bridges, and people were also concerned that a construction like this could cause floods. Later, the biggest argument was that István Széchenyi wanted to introduce a general pontage, which would’ve offended the tradition of noble tax exemption. Still, “the greatest Hungarian” founded the Bridge Association in 1832, through which he wanted to get the support of the richest Hungarian entrepreneurs.

After long fights, Széchenyi managed to convince Baron György Sina to financially support the construction of the bridge. This is how the Chain Bridge Corporation was born in 1836, when Széchenyi already had a concept in his mind, since he consulted the greatest engineers of the time, e.g. Thomas Telford. Count Széchenyi met William Tierney Clark in England, who undertook the preparation of the plans, which he presented in 1839. Meanwhile, the Viennese Rothschild family and the Pest Wodianer family joined Sina’s corporation, which meant that they had enough capital to start the construction, which cost 13 times more than the building of the National Museum.

The construction of the bridge was enacted at the 1839-40 parliamentary session, the corporation got hold of the area for 87 years, so the work could finally start. It took two years for the piles to be put down, so when the laying of the foundation stone came on the 24^th of August, 1842 – as seen on the painting below – Palatine Joseph laid the first, symbolic stone on the pedestal of the Danube. At this time, the construction works were led by a commissioned engineer, Adam Clark, who previously came to Hungary in the service of the Danube Steamboating Association.