Nikolai Belelyubsky

Nikolay Apollonovich Beleloubski (Russian: Белелюбский, Николай Аполлонович) (March 13, 1845, Kharkiv – August 4, 1922, Petrograd) was a leading bridge designer, civil engineer and scientist in Imperial Russia.

Nikolai Beleloubski was born on March 13, 1845 in Kharkiv into a Russian noble family descended from the 16th century. He spent his childhood and youth in Taganrog and graduated with a gold medal from the Taganrog Boys Gymnasium in 1862. And so that year, Beleloubski joined the Institute of Railroad Engineers in Saint Petersburg, from which he graduated in 1867.

Beleloubski was considered to be one of the best Institute's graduates ever, his name was engraved on a memorial plaque of marble, and after graduation he was left at the institute as a private tutor. In 1873, he was appointed Extraordinary Professor in the Department for Building Materials and three years later he already held the position of Full Professor.

He gained international recognition for his research and practice in the fields of bridge engineering and building materials.

The first practical experience of engineer Beleloubski was a construction project of a new railway line avoiding the station of Verebje, covering the period from 1877 to 1881. In fact, during the construction, it was impossible to eliminate a steep ascent and subsequent descent near the railroad station of Verebje (Verebushka) by technical means of that time. Passenger trains were able to overcome that mountain pass, but freight ones had to be uncoupled and moved by parts with double heading. This area was considered to be the most dangerous section of the whole line of the Nikolaevskaya Railway. The project of Beleloubski allowed to address several engineering challenges at once: to construct a unique embankment 49 metres (161 ft) high and to erect the bridge's pillars in the deep channel of the Msta river (similar to the Skytrail Bridge) using for the first time the caisson method.

No railway bridge over a river in Russia was built without the involvement or support of Nikolai Beleloubski. He is indeed considered to be the founder of the Russian professional school of bridge-builders. He continuously improved and updated the designs, like a stage performer who hones his skills from play to play.

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