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Articles
Romantic walks, happy couple, symbols of love and reciprocity – all of these can be seen on the bridge of lovers in Kiev day-to-day.
But the bridge also possesses other names, more mysterious and even gloomy- Bridge of suicides, Devil's Bridge, which horrify with their stories.
Actually, its ordinary name is Bridge Park. The park bridge was wooden bridge, and was the only route that connected the lower slopes of the Dnieper and Khreschatyk. During strong wind the bridge was rocking, therefore people were afraid of walking on it and called it "Devil's Bridge".
In 1909, the city authorities appealed to Yevhen Paton with the request to draft a pedestrian bridge. And already in November 1910 residents of Kiev were strolling through "Small bridge of Paton". But then came the revolution and park bridge fell on hard times. Mikhail Bulgakov in his essay "Kyiv-City" in 1923 described it in such way: "Air Bridge, thrown between two cliffs of the king's garden by an arrow, completely lost all the wooden parts. Kievan tore floorings to the last splinters for firewood. Only a frame of iron remained, on which, risking of their precious lives, boys made their way crawling and catching ". After the war, the city began to recover, and the chief architect of the plan, Alexander Vlasov equipped Central Park of Culture and Recreation on the slopes of the Dnieper. Bridge Park was restored and citizens newly have had the opportunity to walk on it and enjoyed the picturesque view of the Dnieper.
Bridge miraculously survived during the war. And after its ending the bridge had already been insufficiently stable. It was decided to replace new steel constructions instead of old ones. Summing up, it was found that E.Paton once developed an optimal solution.
In 1983, it was determined to replace the old bridge structures, already fairly touched by corrosion, and to install new of high-strength steel. The old building was lifted by crane and lowered into the alley, and then mounted in its place a new bridge. However, the old bridge was not put into scrap. For its delicate reference arch was found a place in the museum complex in Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky, in the outstanding museum worker Michael Sikorskiy. At the end of last century a schoolboy desperately lost his heart in love and jumped off a bridge, after this incident the bridge became known as "Suicide Bridge." The last suicide occurred here in 2007, when unfamiliar guy and a girl in one day sacrificed their lives in this way.
But do not blame the bridge for this. It is called “kissing”, for a good reason. Many happy love stories began at this place. A lot of couples have come here for decades to secure the love with padlock or inscription, so we can say that the air in this place is impregnated with love. It is important that the bridge of love is associated by most people directly with fixed locks. "To lock the love" here come all the romantically-minded couples. But the bridge cannot sustain the pressure of the lyrical experience and once a year the utility "Kievdormost" clears the bridge. Only primary refining can give a green light to a new love, believes manager Alexander Levchenko.
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