Negrelli Viaduct, Railway bridge in Prague, Czech Republic
The Negrelli Viaduct is a 1,100-metre stone railway bridge over the Vltava, linking Masaryk Station to Bubny via Štvanice Island. Its 87 arches are mostly sandstone, with granite segmental spans over the river; the deck is 7.6 metres wide between parapets. The German text wrongly says it connects different materials; it connects Masaryk Station with Bubny.
Construction began in 1846 under Austrian engineer Alois Negrelli and concluded in 1850, with thousands of workers participating in this ambitious undertaking. Upon completion, it represented a significant technical achievement that enabled rail travel across the river for the first time.
The bridge is named after Alois Negrelli, the engineer who took over its construction after Jan Perner died in an accident. Its arches once housed craft workshops and shipping firms, and today trains still cross it daily between Masaryk Station and Bubny.
The viaduct runs from Masaryk Station past Florenc bus station through Karlín and over Štvanice Island to Bubny. The deck carries live electrified tracks, so view it from the riverside paths and embankments below rather than from the railway itself. The arches over Křižíkova Street were replaced by concrete beams in 1952–1954, leaving wide openings to walk through.
The viaduct was designed using fresh experience from the 1845 Vltava flood, whose water level reached only a few tens of centimetres lower. In August 2002 it stayed in full operation while almost all of Karlín was under water, and the flood did not exceed the reserve planned in the bridge project.
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