Nový Most
Encyclopedia
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
in Bratislava
Bratislava
Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
, the capital of Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
. It is the 32nd-tallest, and thus shortest, member of the World Federation of Great Towers, and is the only bridge to be a member. It is the world's longest cable-stayed bridge to have one pylon and one cable-stayed plane.
It is an asymmetrical cable-stayed bridge
Cable-stayed bridge
A cable-stayed bridge is a bridge that consists of one or more columns , with cables supporting the bridge deck....
with a main span length of 303 metres. Its steel
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
construction is suspended from steel cables, connected on the Petržalka side to two pillar
Column
A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a vertical structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. For the purpose of wind or earthquake engineering, columns may be designed to resist lateral forces...
s. The total length of the bridge is 430.8 metres, its width 21 metres, and it weighs 7537 tonnes.
A special attraction is its flying saucer
Flying saucer
A flying saucer is a type of unidentified flying object sometimes believed to be of alien origin with a disc or saucer-shaped body, usually described as silver or metallic, occasionally reported as covered with running lights or surrounded with a glowing light, hovering or moving rapidly either...
-shaped structure housing a restaurant, called "UFO" (since 2005; previously called Bystrica), on the bridge's 84.6 metre pylon. The restaurant is reached using an elevator
Elevator
An elevator is a type of vertical transport equipment that efficiently moves people or goods between floors of a building, vessel or other structures...
situated in the left pillar, and offers a good view over Bratislava. In the right pillar there is an emergency staircase with 430 stairs.
Nový Most has 4 upper lanes for cars, and lanes for bicycles and pedestrians beneath the roadway on both sides.
Construction
The bridge was built between 1967 and 1972 under a project managed by A. Tesár, J. Lacko, and I. Slameň. It officially opened on August 26, 1972, as the second bridge over the Danube in Bratislava. A significant section of the Old TownOld Town, Bratislava
The Old Town of Bratislava is the historic center and one of the boroughs of Bratislava, in the Bratislava Region of Slovakia. It is coextensive with the smallest Slovak administrative district by area, Bratislava I. It contains the small, but preserved medieval city center, Bratislava Castle and...
below Bratislava Castle
Bratislava Castle
Bratislava Castle is the main castle of Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia.The massive rectangular building with four corner towers stands on a quite isolated rocky hill of the Little Carpathians directly above the Danube river in the middle of Bratislava...
, which included nearly all of the Jewish quarter, was demolished to create the roadway that led to it; on the other hand, the bridge improved access between Petržalka
Petržalka
Petržalka ) is the largest borough of Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. Situated on the right bank of the river Danube, it is home to approximately 150,000 people.-History:Historical records of Petržalka exist from 1225...
and the rest of the city. Parts of the historical city walls were unearthed during construction.