105 years ago, traffic began to flow across Prague's Hlávka Bridge

source: www.socharstvi.info

Prague - 105 years ago, on February 6, 1912, the Hlávka Bridge was ceremonially opened in Prague. The construction, which owes its existence to the establishment of slaughterhouses in Holešovice in 1895, is now part of the heavily used North-South arterial road. The reinforced concrete bridge, named after the Czech architect and patron Josef Hlávka, spans the Vltava River between Florenc and Holešovice. Its deck serves both car and tram traffic. As one of the few Prague bridges, it has never been renamed.

The bridge was built in two phases between 1909 and 1912. It was 16.8 meters wide and 297.4 meters long. It spanned two branches of the Vltava River and the Štvanice Island with the help of seven arches. The shorter part of the bridge from Těšnov to the island was built according to the design of Jiří Soukup from steel, while the second part of the bridge, designed by František Mencl, was made of concrete. Sculptors Bohumil Kafka and Ladislav Kofránek contributed to the artistic form of the bridge.

Between 1958 and 1962, the bridge was expanded to twice its size to accommodate the planned route of the arterial road. On this occasion, the steel part of the bridge's structure was replaced with a reinforced concrete structure.