First railway bridge

The most difficult task was to choose the place where the Trans-Siberian Railway will pass through the Ob. Initially, the choice fell on Tomsk, but then the bridge would have to be built where the Ob spills every spring. The only narrow section was on the territory of present-day Novosibirsk, but then the highway will pass south of the planned one.

Construction has begun. The bridge consists of nine spans lying on stone supports of local granite, laid on the granite bed of the river. Interestingly, the changes made by N. A. Belelyubsky in the process of construction, consisting in the device of the "free carriageway", later became known in the world bridge building as the "Russian system".

Almost 100 years later, the Ministry of Railways of the USSR decided to build a new bridge with the subsequent dismantling of the old span structure, which no longer met modern standards for crossing heavy trains. After the completion of the new Komsomolsk railway bridge, which was inevitably inferior in aesthetic qualities to its predecessor, the “old” bridge was no longer needed. However, it continued to be used by passenger trains passing through the city centre.

Currently, trains travel only one way across the old bridge. But its supports and embankments on the banks are preserved, which allows you to complete additional spans again. In the Park "City Beginning", on the city embankment, one old span part is even stored as an exhibit.