The Chain Bridge by jexelot
"Hungary is not dead ; she will live again!"-this is how, in the first part of the nineteenth century, Count István Széchenyi, one of the greatest figures of the Reform Period, whom Lajos Kossuth called "the greatest Hungarian", encouraged the nation, groaning under foreign oppression. He himself whole-heatedly urged and sponsored the building of factories, mills, roads and bridges. It was in his initiative, and according to his ideas, that the Chain Bridge was built from 1839 to 1849 to the plans of the English engineer William Tierney Clark by Adam Clark, a Scot.The bridge, 380 meters (420 yds.) long and 15.7 meters (17.5 yds.) wide, is supported by pillars shaped like antique triumphal arches. It was the first bridge over the Danube and it not only linked Buda with Pest but also the western with the eastern parts of the country. In January 1945 Hitler's troops blew it up, but in 1948-49 it was rebuilt in its original form.
