by April 1905Pontoon Bridge
Panorama with the fortress, barges and a church spire
The church spire rises over the town at left, with Petrovaradin Fortress's long ramparts filling the hill across the river and a pontoon bridge of moored barges still crossing the water below it. A handwritten family greeting dated 4 April 1905 fills the sky, wishing the recipient well and sending kisses from the writer and another. The heading reads Ujvidéki látkép, Panorama Neusatz, with the publisher's imprint, Verlag J. Singer, Hoffotograf, Ujvidék, at top right.
Published by Josef Singer
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.
On the card
Újvidék. Látkép
- Date
- by April 1905
- Coordinates
- 45.25463, 19.85729
- Source
- National Széchényi Library - postcards
- Credit
- National Széchényi Library
- Licence
- Public domain
- Size
- 2345 × 1542 px
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