Charles Bridge
Medieval stone arch bridge crossing the Vltava in Prague.
Last updated
via Wikipedia: Charles Bridge · see source
Where it is
Coordinates: 50°05′10″N 14°24′43″E (50.0860, 14.4120) · Open in OpenStreetMap
Coordinates and connected clubs: the infobox of Wikipedia: Charles Bridge (CC BY-SA 4.0). Map: drawn by Codexery from OpenStreetMap tiles.
The bridge features 16 arches shielded by ice guards and is protected by three bridge towers.[1] Crossing the Vltava river in Prague, Czech Republic, is a medieval stone arch bridge known as Charles Bridge.[1] Its length is 516 meters and its width is close to 10 meters.[1]
Geography and history
Czech legend holds that Charles IV laid the first stone at 5:31am on 9 July 1357.[2] A flood in 1342 caused severe damage to the earlier Judith Bridge, which this new structure replaced.[1] Three of the bridge's pillars were damaged by a flood occurring in 1432.[2] A new staircase to Kampa Island was installed in 1844, taking the place of the original one.[1]
An omnibus line, the first regular public transport on the bridge, began operating in the 1870s and was later succeeded by a horse-drawn tram.[1] A major reconstruction of the bridge's towers was carried out from 1874 through 1883.[1]
What the cited sources add
Dana Shanberg's account notes that the bridge was the only link between Lesser Town and Old Town for centuries.[3] According to Shanberg, the first statue, of St. John of Nepomuk, was added in 1683.[3] Shanberg states that the bridge was pedestrianized in 1950 and is now crowded with tourists and street vendors.[3] An iDnes piece from December 2018 states that the bridge is under surveillance by sixteen cameras; twelve of these are directed at particular statues, while four provide multi-angle coverage of the monument, and an electronic perimeter-detection system also exists.[4]
A Google Doodle from July 9, 2017, marked the 660th anniversary of when construction on the bridge began.[5]
References
- Wikipedia, "Charles Bridge" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Dana Shanberg, "Charles Bridge", A View on Cities (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Charles Bridge" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Frucht, "Eastern Europe : an introduction to the people, lands, and culture", ABC-CLIO, 2005, p. 251; Brook, "Prague & the Czech Republic", National Geographic, 2010, p. 98 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Dana Shanberg, "Charles Bridge", A View on Cities. facts only, no text reused. aviewoncities.com
- Wikipedia, "Charles Bridge" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Smlsal, "Sochám na Karlově mostě mizí ruce i berle, vandalové řádí nebývale silně", iDnes, 7 December 2018 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Charles Bridge" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "660th Anniversary of Charles Bridge", Google, 9 July 2017 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Charles Bridge (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Charles Bridge (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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