5/5 O. S. 3 years ago on Google • 84 reviews
When
all
the
bridges
were
blown
up
in
World
War
II,
it
became
necessary
to
rebuild
pontoon
bridges.
There
was
no
question
of
restoring
the
destroyed
bridges:
it
would
have
taken
years...
There
was
only
one
way
out
-
building
a
new
one.
Everything
took
exactly
a
year:
in
mid-January
of
the
following
year,
the
Kossuth
Bridge
began
to
function,
connecting
Kossuth
and
Batthyany
squares.
The
authors
of
the
project
were
architects
Endre
Mishtet
and
Elek
Hilvert,
who
worked
under
the
direction
of
Sich
Karol.
According
to
the
plan,
the
bridge's
supports
were
made
of
reinforced
concrete,
and
the
frame
was
made
of
steel.
For
post-war
Budapest,
it
was
unrealistic
to
purchase
almost
a
thousand
tons
of
iron
and
three
times
more
cubic
meters
of
timber...
We
had
to
collect
scrap
metal
from
everywhere:
from
the
river,
and
from
bombed
mines,
and
from
under
the
ruins
of
buildings...
The
result
was
a
355-meter
bridge
,
which
had
a
width
of
just
over
10
m.
The
frame
was
cast
in
Hungarian
factories.
The
destruction
of
temporary
bridges
as
a
result
of
ice
drift
hastened
the
opening
of
the
bridge.
It
functioned
until
1954,
when
the
permanent
bridges
were
reconstructed.
First,
traffic
was
reduced,
the
roadway
was
blocked,
then
after
2
years
the
bridge
was
closed,
and
after
another
4
years,
in
March
1960,
it
was
finally
dismantled.
Currently,
those
interested
can
only
see
stone
slabs
on
the
river
embankments
-
all
that
remains
as
a
souvenir
from
the
Kossuth
Bridge.
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