Khabarovsk Bridge

This historic bridge held the title of being the longest in both Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union for many years, boasting a length of 2,590 meters (8,500 ft).

During the autumn of 1914, a merchant ship transporting the final two sections was unfortunately sunk in the Indian Ocean by the German cruiser Emden, resulting in an unforeseen delay of over a year in the construction of the bridge.

Eventually, on October 5, 1916, the bridge was successfully finished and officially inaugurated under the name Alekseyevsky, in honor of the esteemed Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia.

On April 5, 1920, two of the bridge's eighteen metal spans were detonated by guerrilla units retreating from Khabarovsk during the provocative speeches of the Japanese military in the midst of the Civil War.

After many years of preparatory work, office visits, heated discussions and disputes with the public, who did not want to put up with the loss of the original appearance of the bridge, it was decided to restore it.

Over three weeks, experts used hydraulic jacks to rotate the 127-metre span, which weighs more than 1,000 tonnes, symbolically placing the retro truss parallel to the new bridge.