CHAIN BRIDGE

An Interesting History     

In Budapest, Hungary, the Szechenyi Chain Bridge, built in 1849, was the first permanent bridge over the Danube River.

In the 1800s Count Szechenyi went to London where he was living the life of a playboy. When his father died, he went home for the funeral, but because the Danube was frozen, he could not get across the river and was unable to attend his father’s funeral.

 This experience so upset him that it changed his life. He remained home in Budapest and became one of the leading figures in the city during the last half of the 19^th century.  The pontoon bridge prior to the chain bridge had to be removed when ships passed, and it also was at the mercy of storms. A Scotsman, Adam Clark, was   commissioned to come to Budapest to oversee the massive construction project of building a permanent bridge across the river. Clark liked the city so much, he remained there for the rest of his life.

During WW II, 80% of the city was bombed.  Still the Nazis blew up all the bridges before retreating from the city. The Chain Bridge was the first bridge rebuilt after the war. It reopened in November 1949, exactly one hundred years after the first opening. Two years after the war ended, all the bridges in the city across the Danube had been rebuilt.