BudapestZIN

Széchenyi lánchíd or Széchenyi Chain Bridge is a suspension bridge that spans the River Danube between Buda and Pest, the western and eastern sides of Budapest, the capital of Hungary. It was the first permanent bridge across the Danube in Budapest, and was opened in 1849.

Its two ends are:

* Roosevelt Square (with the Gresham Palace and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), and
* Adam Clark Square (the Zero Kilometer Stone and the lower end of the Castle Hill Funicular, leading to Buda Castle).

The bridge is named after István Széchenyi, a major supporter of its construction. At the time of its construction, it counted as a wonder of the world. It had an enormous significance in the country's economics and life. Its decorations made of cast iron, and its construction, radiating calm dignity and balance, raised it among the most beautiful industrial monuments in Europe. It became a symbol of advancement, national awakening, and the linkage between East and West.

The bridge was designed by the English engineer William Tierney Clark in 1839, after Count István Széchenyi's initiative in the same year, with construction supervised locally by Scottish engineer Adam Clark (no relation). It is a larger scale version of William Tierney Clark's earlier Marlow Bridge, across the River Thames in Marlow, England.

The bridge was opened in 1849, and thus became the first permanent bridge in the Hungarian capital. At the time, its center span of 202 m was one of the largest in the world. The pairs of lions at each of the abutments were added in 1852. The bridge was given its current name in 1898.

The bridge's cast iron structure was totally updated and strengthened in 1914. In World War II, the bridge was damaged and needed to be rebuilt. The rebuilding was completed in 1949.

Among the mythical anecdotes relating to the bridge, the most popular is that the lions were sculpted without tongues and the sculptor was mocked so much that he jumped into the Danube in shame. The lions do have tongues (although they are not visible from below, which is the usual point of view, as the lions are lying on a stone block some three meters high). The sculptor lived into the 1890s, and the only message he sent to mocking people was "Your wife should have a tongue just as my lions have, and woe will be unto you!" He jumped into the Danube when a little boy asked him about it.[citation needed]

In 2001, Hungarian stunt pilot Péter Besenyei flew upside down under the bridge, a maneuver that became a standard in Red Bull air races today.

The bridge is featured in the 2002 movie I Spy.

In 2008, British crime writer Mark Van Spall (author of Heirless Descent and Prisoners of Hate) proposed to his girlfriend at the centre of the bridge on the stroke of midnight.

Elisabeth Bridge is the second newest bridge and one of the most elegant ones of Budapest, Hungary, connecting Buda and Pest across the River Danube. It is situated at the narrowest part of the Danube, the bridge spanning only 290 m. It is named after Queen Elisabeth, a popular queen and empress of Austria-Hungary, who was assassinated in 1898. Today, her large bronze statue sits by the bridge's Buda side connection in the middle of a small garden.

Its two ends are:

* March 15 Square (with the oldest church in Pest, Inner City Parish Church, built in the 13th century) and the famous Mátyás Pince restaurant
* Döbrentei Square in Buda with the monument of Saint Gellért on the Gellért Hill, a sculpture of Queen Elisabeth and the Rác Baths and Rudas Baths nearby. A luxury spa hotel is currently being built in the area.

The original permanent crossing, a decorative suspension bridge, was built between 1897 and 1903, amid a corruption scandal. The Buda end of Erzsébet bridge runs directly into the massive foot of Gellért Hill, necessitating a complicated arrangement of roads to connect to the bridge. The bridge was designed in such a way because a wealthy nobleman, a member of the City Council owned the particular area of the riverbank. He wanted to make a fortune by selling the piece of land for bridge constructon purposes, bribing the other councilmen and engineers on purpose.

He managed to sell the land at greatly inflated prices. In the era of horse drawn carriages the geometry issue was not considered significant and the resulting cost overruns were covered up, therefore no prosecution took place. In recent decades, many motorists have been permanently injured or killed in the sharp turn that immediately follows the bridgehead. After a terrible accident in 2004, which killed a family, a speed limit of 40 km/h was posted for the west-bound lanes.

The original Erzsébet Bridge, along with many other bridges all over the country, was blown up at the end of World War II by retreating Wehrmacht sappers. This is the only bridge in Budapest which could not be rebuilt in its original form. Pictures and some salvaged elements from the old bridge can be seen on the grass in front of the Museum of Transport in City Park.

The currently standing slender white cable bridge was built on the very same location between 1961–1964, because the government could not afford to construct entirely new foundations for the bridge. The main spar cables of the bridge are hexagonal in cross section, composed of thousands of elementary steel wires of seven different diametres, partly because early computers were unable to provide solution for a circular cross section main cable batch.

The novel design, planned by Pál Sávoly, was a first in Central Europe and not without weaknesses. Tram traffic and its heavy tracks had to be removed from the bridge in 1973 after signs of cracks appeared in the structure. The 2×3 lane Erzsébet bridge is relatively well maintained because it is part of the route where foreign dignitaries are being taken from Ferihegy Airport to the government quarter.

(source)
(photos: Zsolt)

—
funny art
Momiji Dolls 

At its two ends are:

Gellért tér (at the foot of Gellért Hill, with the Gellért Spa and Hotel Gellért) and

Fővám tér (with the Great Market Hall and the nearby Budapest University of Economics).

The bridge was built between 1894 and 1896 to the plans of János Feketeházy. Although radically different in structure, the bridge imitates the general outline of a chain-type bridge, which was considered an aesthetically preferable form at the time of construction. The bridge was opened in the presence of Emperor Franz Joseph; the last silver rivet on the Pest abutment was inserted into the iron structure by the Emperor himself, and the bridge was originally named after him.

It is 333.6 m in length and 20.1 m in width. The top of the four masts are decorated with large bronze statues of the Turul, a falcon-like bird, prominent in ancient Hungarian mythology. Many trams used to cross the twin-road bridge, which was also heavily burdened with car traffic, and there is an initiative to convert it to a pedestrian-only crossing once the fourth underground metro line is completed in Budapest in the coming years.