Riga Bridge, railway bridge in Pskov, Russia
The Riga Bridge is a riveted iron arch railway bridge over the Velikaya River in Pskov, the city's first permanent railway bridge. Its arches were assembled by riveting and rest on pillars built in August 1886; the deck followed in July 1888. A 1948–1950 reconstruction by Mostopoyezd No. 449 replaced the iron arches with a reinforced-concrete structure of altered arch shape.
The bridge was laid on 14 September 1886, alongside a temporary wooden crossing, to designs by engineers Zhuravsky and Kerbedz; the deck went up in July 1888 and traffic opened in May 1889. It was partly destroyed in May 1919 during the Civil War and rebuilt by Estonian troops that July. Soviet sappers blew it up on 8 July 1941, German forces destroyed it again in July 1944, and Soviet troops rebuilt it between 26 July and 3 August 1944. A capital reconstruction from 1948 to 1950 gave it its present reinforced-concrete form.
The name "Riga" was fixed to the bridge after traffic on the Pskov–Riga line opened in June 1889. In 2022, on the 78th anniversary of Pskov's liberation, a memorial sign to Semyon Baykov and the soldiers of the 110th NKVD Regiment was placed by the bridge, using fragments of the old span found by search teams in 2020.
The bridge is a guarded strategic railway crossing, so access to the deck and tracks is restricted; it is best viewed from the riverbanks. The 2022 memorial sign to Baykov and the 110th NKVD Regiment stands near the bridge, incorporating fragments of the old span found by search teams in 2020.
A Soviet soldier named Semyon Baykov sacrificed his life in 1941 to ensure the detonation succeeded when Germans tried to prevent it. This act reflects the bridge's strategic importance during the war and the cost required to control it.
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