In addition to all the titles and nicknames that Kaunas has, it could also be named the city of bridges. The interconnecting rivers linked the visitors, who found excellent place for trade after coming here from various lands, and with the growing importance of land transport, Kaunas has become an essential intersection of highways. Ferries and temporary bridges soon connected the riverbanks, later to be changed by the permanent ones.
We will not answer the question of how many bridges there are in Kaunas now. It is much more interesting to discover that for yourself. And what if we also counted the viaducts that crossed the small streams or even those small bridges that lead from the Žaliakalnis sidewalks to the main entrances of the houses that have settled on the slopes? But let’s limit ourselves this time to the story, about the old bridges of the city and their destinies.
It is difficult to say exactly when the first city bridge appeared, although the first reliable information about the construction of bridges across the Nemunas and the Neris reaches us from the end of the18th century. Seasonal bridges to Vilijampolė and Aleksotas existed until World War I and the strategy of Kaunas Fortress did not allow to build something more solid later. At that time, only one modern herald of industrial-era engineering stretched across the Nemunas, and in 1862, the first train drove through the new railway bridge. During the war, the Germans, who took over the territory of today’s Lithuania, built several wooden bridges in the city. In addition to the new bridges that replaced the old ones, Panemunė Bridge and the so-called Eiguliai Bridge (currently in the place of Varnių Bridge) emerged. It is interesting that both Panemunė and Aleksotas bridges had the military narrow-gauge railway later used for the needs of city’s transport.
Soon the 1918 came along with the independence. Kaunas became the center of the country and remained a very important transport hub, where transit took place between all regions of the country. Wooden bridges built by the Germans were still in service, but their condition was deteriorating. For example, in 1925, the Ministry of Transport and Communications had decided to dismantle the former Eiguliai Bridge, which was in very poor condition, but residents’ testimonies about the need for the bridge flooded the institutions, and the interdepartmental commission decided that it must be maintained. Before the works started, the bridge was taken down by the old enemy: drift ice. In addition to taking away this one – a suburban bridge at the time – it also destroyed the main Slabada Bridge. That’s how the parts of the city were completely cut off from each other.
The need for new bridges has been evident since the dawn of municipal government. Looking at the ideas of the famous Frandsen’s urban planning project from 1923, it should be noted that in terms of traffic flows, they were quite far-sighted. The plans included several bridges that seemed important to the urban planners years later. The proposals to build bridges that would throw over the city’s bypasses over the Neris and the Nemunas gained reinforced concrete forms of Kleboniškis and Lampėdžiai only during the years of Soviet occupation. The wish to build a bridge on the axis of M. K. Čiurlionio Street finally came true in the 21st century.
Various circumstances led to more modest solutions. First, in terms of installing new connections in the old places. For example, back in 1925-1926, the city municipality’s communiqués reported a great need to build “two new bridges”: the new one to Aleksotas and the one connecting the station area with Žemoji Freda and Aukštoji Freda (there had been a proposal to build it near the Carmelite Church). Since it was impossible to implement the latter, passenger cars were allowed to cross the railway bridge until the mid-1930s. On the axis of Birštonas Street, however, a much cheaper steel structure solution was chosen, which appeared and opened in 1930 near the soon-to-be-dismantled old German bridge. Back then, the widening of the very narrow Birštonas Street would have demanded even more costs, due to the need to buy out many private estates. The choice of the location of the bridge was later criticized by many of the country’s pioneers in urban planning, as it did not solve the problem of traffic-congested streets in the Old Town. Along with this bridge, named after Vytautas the Great, the construction of the new Vilijampolė Bridge began. It received the name of engineer Petras Vileišis and thus, the old Slabada became a full-fledged part of the city again.
At the end of the summer of 1930, on the outskirts of Lithuania, in the town of Saločiai, a long-awaited bridge over the Mūša River was solemnly opened. What does Kaunas have in common with that? “Once again, the law, which says that the successes of some are built on the failures of others, has been proven”, one of the country’s dailies wrote at the time. In 1928, next to the old one, another new bridge was being built in Kaunas. The one to Panemunė. Although the spring flood had demolished part of the bridge, it was still opened in the same year (although people later complained about its quality). Some of the constructions that ended up in the river did not perish. They were taken to Saločiai and used for another bridge, in which, you can still see a small part of the old Kaunas. Originally, two of the trusses of the bridge were supposed to see off the people going from Šančiai to Panemunė and back.
The demolition of bridges and the construction of temporary ones during World War II would require a separate article. And yet, Kaunas welcomed the end of the war without a single permanent bridge over the two major rivers. All that was left of the old ones were piers, which later were at least partially used to build new bridges. Undoubtedly, the first military units of the Soviet army rebuilt the railway bridge, which was of great importance. Many of us are so accustomed to the images of this bridge that we don’t even think about why it looks so unusual as if it was made out of two bridges? If we were to make a sad joke, we could call the bridge Ribbentrop-Molotov. The lower part of the bridge is, in part, the legacy of German engineers. It appeared in 1941 when they were rebuilding a bridge blown up by retreating Russians. And in 1944, the bridge was blown up by the Germans themselves. After the war, these parts were pulled out of the river and installed on the Šančiai side, while the higher trusses at Freda were designed by Russian military engineers. In 1948, on the remains of the old Vytautas the Great Bridge, the hands of German prisoners created a new one, permeated with the fervor of Socialist realism canons. The shipping needs were not forgotten, the middle part of the bridge was designed to be movable.
At that time, Vilijampolė received a temporary wooden bridge made by the same German prisoners. Thanks to the photographer Stanislovas Lukošius, who documented the city, we can see rare photos in which the new bridge already stands on the old piers in the 1960s, and the temporary one, taken to the side, is being dismantled. Panemunė was less fortunate. The locals did not get a full-fledged traffic bridge until 1957. The situation was alleviated by the fact that perhaps the only large bridge from the period of independence remained through Jiesia. The appearance of the 1936 construction only changed in our time, when it was reconstructed a decade ago. However, part of the widened bridge is still authentic, and the creators of the project have also left some of the authentic walls that still bear the historic leveling mark.
Although during the years of Soviet occupation there were talks about the need for a new connection between the city center and Žemoji Freda, Aleksotas Bridge remained the most important connection with the central part of the city until 2002. The opening of the Čiurlionis Bridge made it possible to finally begin the reconstruction of the Aleksotas Bridge, which was in a state of emergency at the time. Vilijampolė Bridge was next. Probably all Kaunas residents also remember the explosion of 2012, which marked the end of the fifty-year-old Panemunė Bridge. After that, a new one emerged on the piers from the 1930s.
The city’s celebrity Aleksotas Bridge – found on so many postcards – has changed dramatically after reconstruction. One could even say that a second bridge has appeared, which we only see during the hours of darkness. We talked to the architect Jurgis Rimvydas Palys, who worked with the architectural part of the reconstruction of this bridge and is behind its current distinctive appearance. He told us about the two most important goals of the reconstruction concept, “First of all, we wanted to restore the lifting function. Imagine a new tradition – at noon on Sunday, the bridge rises for an hour, a steamboat passes by. You get the whole performance! Unfortunately, the heritage specialists decided it’s not necessary and the mechanism was dismantled,” the architect said. He also explained why until now, no one has found a photograph where the bridge would be drawn, “Its mechanisms were not synchronized, so most likely the bridge was lifted only once after construction. One way or another, it would have been possible to fix it but now, it’s all gone.”
The second goal was visual: to turn the bridge into more of an event than just an engineering product, “I wanted to make a tunnel of light, through which people could cozily cross the river. Usually, bridges here resemble a simple plank where the wind blows through you and your hat away. The lamps were adjusted to pylons to look like they were a continuation of them,” architect J. R. Palys spoke about the vision. Recalling the historical significance of the bridge, he chose the royal combination of blue and white for the lighting of the roadway. However, the bridge currently reflects only part of the idea, “Some of the lamps that were supposed to illuminate the bottom of the bridge, went missing. The working of others is also not supervised.” Emphasizing perhaps the most valuable parts of the bridge – the old piers of the 1930s – the engineers had to consider the fact that the bridge got slightly elevated; they had to ensure that their totality would look harmonious and be easy to see. Right next to the pier there are stairs leading to the water. When deciding about the environment of the bridge, what lies above was not forgotten, since it is inextricably linked with this place. Under J. R. Palys’ proposal, a slope was paved and probably the most popular observation deck in the city set up.
Although the original aim was to preserve the old cast-iron railings, unfortunately, they were irreversibly worn. “It was decided to remove and restore them but when the work started, it turned out that the top doesn’t connect, and the bottom is completely rusty. When they tried to remove the rust, the railings would just crumble, so we were allowed to put the new ones. I looked at the proposed example and it was like something out of the Khrushchyovka staircase,” the architect remembered with dread. He later suggested a “dotted” solution: alternating rows of solid and openwork fences. This also solved the question that arose at that time about the significance of the heritage of these fences with Soviet symbols. “A bridge with intrigues,” remembering the development of the project with a smile, its creator described, emphasizing that not all institutions were enthusiastic even about the idea of lighting fixtures at first.
We thank the architect with the story about the metamorphosis of the Aleksotas Bridge and finish our story. However, the story of Kaunas bridges is far from complete, so stay tuned for the sequel!
