1910Pontoon Bridge
Novi Sad Across the Danube, with the Pontoon Bridge and Steamers
A panorama across the Danube shows the town of Neusatz spread along the far bank, its skyline marked by a tall church tower and several smaller spires above rows of low rooftops. Two steam-powered vessels work the river, one towing a laden barge and the other trailing smoke from a tall funnel, while a chain of moored pontoon boats forms the near end of a pontoon bridge crossing the foreground. The word Neusatz is lettered in script across the top right of the print.
About this place
Before any permanent bridge stood here, Novi Sad and Petrovaradin were joined by a wooden pontoon bridge laid across the Danube on oak floats. Crossings of this kind were used from the late seventeenth century, and the first standing bridge dates from 1788; it was known as Hagen's bridge after the officer, Baron von Hagen, who designed it on the model of one at Mannheim. It was laid each spring by the pontonier unit stationed at Petrovaradin and taken up again before the first ice, and its middle section could be drawn aside to let river traffic through. Carts paid a toll while anything carried by hand went free, residents of the two towns crossed without charge, and the season opened every year with a handshake between the mayor of Novi Sad and the commandant of the fortress. The bridge was removed for the last time in 1918, when work began on the permanent crossing that became the Prince Tomislav bridge.
- Date
- 1910
- Coordinates
- 45.25463, 19.85729
- Source
- Public online source
- Licence
- Public domain
- Size
- 1600 × 1049 px
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