Tuchkov Bridge

Tuchkov Bridge (Russian: Ту́чков мост) is the bridge across Malaya Neva (a distributary of Neva river) in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Its length is 226 meters and its width is 36 meters. Tuchkov bridge connects Vasilievsky Island and Petrogradsky Island.

The original bridge was built in 1758 in wood. It got its name after local businessman Avraam Tuchkov who financed its construction and who had warehouses nearby. The bridge has been reconstructed several times during its history. Last time it was reconstructed in 1962-1965. Modern Tuchkov bridge has three spans, the middle one being a draw span. Unlike older bridges in St. Petersburg, the design of Tuchkov bridge lacks permanent decorations. In 2010s it is yearly decorated with electric lights to be seen from Birzhevoy Bridge for winter season.

In the early years of 21st century this bridge was left as the only tram service link leading from Vassilievskiy Island. The remaining service (Routes 6 and 40) takes passengers from the island, relieving its rush-hour-crowded Vassileostrosvskaya metro station via much less busy Sportivnaya metro station and, again, busy Gorkovskaya metro station on the main island of Petrogradskiy District, to Vyborgskiy District in the north bank of the Neva. All other tram lines over bridges from Vassilievskiy Island have been removed together with severe reduction in the number of tram routes still popular especially with lower-income population groups, and even the other line from Tuchkov Bridge branching off to Chkalovskiy Prospect (left turn from the bridge) was closed. There may be observed certain tensions between the growing number of car owners and underprivileged users of public transportations. There used to be about a dozen tram routes in and out of Vassilievskiy Island before the reduction in 1990s, while even the renovated to be quieter the Sredniy Prospect tram line (virtually the only one remaining in the island) was nearly permanently closed soon after renovation.

Arkady Svidrigailov, the character from Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment, spends the last night of his life looking into water of Malaya Neva from Tuchkov bridge. Anastasiya Chebotarevskaya, a writer and the wife of a decadent early XXc "Silver Age of Russian Poetry" poet Fyodor Sologub, who lived not far away on the embankment of Zhdanovka river, killed herself by jumping from the bridge.

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