Poniatowski Bridge

Poniatowski Bridge Most Poniatowskiego
Poniatowski Bridge
Carries	Motor vehicles, Light rail, Pedestrians
Crosses	Vistula River
Locale	Warsaw, Poland,  Poland
Characteristics
Design	Deck arch bridge
Material	Steel
Total length	506 metres (1,660 ft)
Width	21.40 metres (70.2 ft)
Longest span	80 metres (260 ft)
No. of spans	8
History
Architect	Stefan Szyller
Engineering design by	Mieczysław Marszewski, Wacław Paszkowski
Constructed by	K. Rudzki i S-ka
Construction begin	1904
Opened	6 January 1914

Coordinates: 52°14′10″N 21°02′30″E / 52.23611°N 21.04167°E / 52.23611; 21.04167

Poniatowski Bridge (Polish: Most Poniatowskiego) is a bridge in Warsaw. Originally built between 1904 and 1914, it was damaged in each of the World Wars, and rebuilt afterwards. It spans the Vistula, connecting Powiśle with the Praga quarter on the other side. Its viaduct is an extension of the Jerusalem Avenues.

The 506 m long steel bridge, consisting of eight spans, was designed by Stefan Szyller. Its construction, begun in 1904, was carried out by the K. Rudzki i S-ka company and supervised by engineers Mieczysław Marszewski and Wacław Paszkowski. Kazimierz Ołdakowski was another engineer who worked on the bridge, before he took over the directorship of Fabryka Broni. Despite being viewed by many as an extravagance (opponents of its construction included the then mayor of Warsaw and the writer Bolesław Prus), it was opened on January 6, 1914, by the Russian Governor General, Georgi Skalon, as Warsaw's third bridge; hence it was nicknamed "third bridge" (Polish: "trzeci most") by the city's residents, though its official name was "Bridge of Our Most Gracious Ruler, Tsar Nicholas II" (Warsaw then being part of the Russian Empire, following the 18th-century partitions of Poland). After Poland regained independence in 1918, the bridge was renamed after Prince Józef Poniatowski and acquired a new nickname — "Poniatoszczak" — which it retains to this day.