Bratislava's 'Old Bridge' to get a new look

The mayor of Bratislava announced Tuesday that the Slovakian's capital's "Old Bridge", a 118-year-old city icon that spans the Danube, is to undergo a costly reconstruction starting next year.

"The construction is expected to cost about one billion koruna (33 million euros, 53 million dollars)," Bratislava mayor Andrej Durkovsky told a press conference.

The "Stary most" (Old Bridge), which dates back to the Austro-Hungarian empire, does not meet road and water transport requirements. The narrow bridge is currently still used by cars and pedestrians.

Around 26,000 of the town's 400,000 inhabitants voted in an Internet survey to choose one of three options and over 11,000 -- the most -- had voted to change its current design, the mayor said.

The preservation of the bridge's old architecture was not possible due to the requirements of the Danube shipping commission, he added.

The bridge will double its width to 34 metres (120 feet) and raise its height over the water so that ships do not get trapped when the water rises. The distance between its pillars also has to be extended because of the construction of a hydro project in Austria.

The bridge will serve a new fast tram line expected to be finished by 2011 to link the city-centre to the communist-era suburb Petrzalka.

Opened in 1890 and originally named after the Austro-Hungarian emperor Franz Joseph I, the bridge was renamed after World War I in honour of one of Czechoslovakia's founders, Milan Rastislav Stefanik.

In 1945 the German troops blew up the bridge. The Soviet soldiers reconstructed it and changed its name again to "Red Army Bridge". The bridge was initially supposed to be temporary but lasted for many decades. It got its current name after the fall of the communist regime.

Bratislava now has five bridges spanning the Danube with the newest opened in September 2005.

7/22/2008