The forgotten bridge of Budapest

Have you ever heard about the Kossuth Bridge? Well, according to lobu.hu, it stood for 14 years, and everything would have been harder without it. It ensured the healthy life cycle of the capital city and solved the problems of the era. Let us learn some facts about the forgotten bridge.

The Kossuth Bridge stood between Kossuth Square and Batthyány Square from 1946 until 1960. It was put out of commission after the inauguration of the Liberty Bridge. Its curiosity is that until then, it was the only river crossing place in Budapest to function throughout the whole year.

Photo: www.fortepan.hu

It was a symbol since it was a significant investment.

It stood for restart.

It was built in seven (!) months, the iron needed for the construction was made from war debris. Its bearing capacity was limited from the first moment on; in fact, after a while, bigger buses could not cross it.

24.hu writes that until the January of 1945, all of the bridges were demolished, which caused serious trouble after WWII as there was no place to cross the river. The Soviet troops built three military bridges out of which Manci Bridge, the replacer of Margaret Bridge stood for the longest time – until 1948.

But these types of bridges would not have withstood the next debacle, so the government decided to construct a half-permanent bridge until the damaged bridges were reconstructed.

There was only a little time for the construction, so the workers worked day and night to achieve the goal. The Kossuth Bridge was 355 metres long; there were two lanes for vehicles and 3.3-metre wide sidewalks.

Photo: www.fortepan.hu/GyulaNagy

The new bridge was an incredible achievement, but transportation was limited by special rules: vehicles could only cross it with 10 km/h, keeping a 20-metre safety gap.

It was not planned for eternity since there were also wooden elements among the panels. However, everything was substituted to steel in 1954. Still, by 1957, it had become so worn out that it had to be closed.

The old bridges were all reconstructed, and by 1963, there was no sign of the onetime Kossuth Bridge. To be more exact, the bridgeheads are still commemorated by two plaques on both sides of the river.

It did not live long, but it was definitely important and useful for Budapest.

Featured image: www.fortepan.hu/UVATERV

Source: http://www.lobu.hu/, https://24.hu/