PHOTO GALLERY with 8 interesting facts about Budapest’s magnificent Elizabeth Bridge

The Elizabeth Bridge in Budapest connects the 15 March Square with the feet of the Gellért Hill in Buda. Interestingly, the current bridge is quite new. The old Elizabeth Bridge was inaugurated in 1903 but destroyed by the German forces in 1944, before the Soviet siege of Budapest. It took almost two decades until the Communist-led Hungary found enough money to rebuild it in a simplified form.

New Budapest Bridge celebrated Empress Elizabeth, the friend of Hungarians

Empress (Queen) Elizabeth of Austria was not only one of the most beautiful women of the era but also the wife of Emperor Franz Joseph and a friend of Hungary, admired even by ordinary Hungarians. When she was murdered in 1898, the Hungarian nation decided to erect a Danube bridge to commemorate her in Budapest. The overpass was built between 1898 and 1903.

The old bridge. Photo: Fortepan / Deutsche Fotothek / Brück und Sohn/Fortepan

Interestingly, it was between the Franz Joseph Bridge (Szabadság Bridge – 1896) and István Széchenyi’s iconic Chain Bridge (1849). The second Danube bridge was the Margaret Bridge, connecting the Southern tip of Margaret Island with Buda and Pest.

The Margaret Bridge. Photo by: Pixabay, Hungarian Parliament’s location

The National Socialist leadership of Hungary tried to convince Adolf Hitler to declare Budapest as an open city like Paris before. However, Germany’s almighty Führer remained convinced to make Budapest a fortress (Festung Budapest) and resist the Soviet invaders as long as possible. That resulted in one of the longest sieges of WWII, causing tremendous destruction in the Hungarian capital, including the demolition of all Danube Bridges by German forces.

The Petőfi (Böske) temporary bridge near the destroyed Elizabeth Bridge in 1945. Photo: Fortepan / Kurutz Márton

Money and will to rebuild Elizabeth Bridge only in the 1960s

As a result, most of the richly decorated Elizabeth Bridge sank under the water level and remained there until the 1960s since the Communist regime lacked both money and will to rebuild the bridge. The Elizabeth Bridge was the last of the Budapest bridges to be rebuilt after WWII in 1964. Thus, we can say it celebrated its 60th anniversary this year. The original date of inauguration was 7 November, but traffic could only return to the overpass on 21 November.

The new bridge was 10 metres wider than the old one, and they used the old bridge piles. The new steel bridge weighs 6,300 tonnes. Since it was inaugurated only in 1964, Hungarians could watch each moment live on TV since the first TV broadcast of the Hungarian Television started in May 1957, Lelépő wrote.

Originally, trams commuted on the bridge but it damaged its structure, so the tram line was halted in 1973 after the construction of metro line M2 was finished. The tram rails were removed in 1975.

The taxi blockade on the Elizabeth Bridge in 1990. Photo: Fortepan/Záray Péter

Considerable Japanese contribution to decorative lighting

The decorative lighting of the bridge was created by the Japanese lighting designer Motoko Ishii. Furthermore, Japan covered half of its costs in 2009.

The bridge is 378.6 metres long, while its width is 27.1 metres. The designer was Pál Sávoly, who was inspired by the Mülheim Bridge in Cologne.

The Elizabeth Bridge with the 15th March Square. Photo: pixabay

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