Makarov Bridge

Under your feet is a short crossing over Petrovsky Ravine: along this canal, water flowed from Petrovsky Dock into the lower basin, and an inconvenient gap lay between the pier and Anchor Square. Pedestrians had to go around it or descend to the lower bridges; this crossing directly linked the two parts of the city. The welded pylons and metal span appeared later: in nineteen seventy-one, the rusted structures here were replaced, while the former supports, dimensions, and outline were retained.

On June fourth, nineteen thirteen, an acceptance commission led a group of four hundred people onto the new bridge. All were made to march in formation, in step. That was how the metal span was tested before its ceremonial opening. The bridge held, and the very next day it was accepted from the builders.

The test was arranged because of an imperial visit. Krasnaya Street then ran into Petrovsky Ravine—a canal through which water was released from Petrovsky Dock into the lower basin. To get from Petrovskaya Pier to Anchor Square, people had to go around the ravine or descend to three lower bridges. Ten years earlier, Nikolai II had been taken by a detour to the laying of the foundation of the Naval Cathedral of St Nicholas. Before the consecration of the completed cathedral, the committee ordered a direct pedestrian crossing to be built over the ravine.

For about a year, the metal parts were assembled at the Franz San Galli Factory in St Petersburg. Six days after the test, the bridge opened at the same time as the cathedral. The first ceremony here was led by Stepan Makarov's widow.

Makarov himself never saw this bridge. He was the chief commander of the Port of Kronstadt, the city's military governor, and chairman of the committee building the Naval Cathedral of St Nicholas. In nineteen oh three, Makarov met Nikolai II on Anchor Square and reported to him on the funds collected and the progress of the work. A few months later, the Russo-Japanese War began. The admiral was appointed to command the squadron at Port Arthur; in the spring of nineteen oh four, his flagship armored battleship Petropavlovsk struck a mine and sank with its commander.

After Makarov's death, sailors and townspeople collected donations for a monument. It was erected on Anchor Square, right beside the ravine, and unveiled one and a half months after the bridge. Thus the crossing built for the emperor's route to the cathedral came to be called Makarov Bridge, after the late admiral. In the Soviet years, its official name for a time was Red Bridge, after the neighboring street, but residents and even official documents continued to use the former name.

In nineteen seventy-one, the rusted pylons and spans were replaced with welded ones, while the old supports, dimensions, and outline of the crossing were retained. Makarov never crossed it: one end of the bridge still leads to his monument, and his widow opened the route whose strength had already been tested by four hundred people.