September 26, 1895
A complex of two railroad truss bridges in what was then the Kingdom of Romania was formally opened. (The Kingdom of Romania remained in existence until 1947, when it was replaced by the Romanian People’s Republic; that communist state – eventually renamed the Socialist Republic of Romania – stayed intact until 1989 and was ultimately supplanted by the current semi-presidential representative republic of Romania.) The bridge complex was originally named after King Carol I (1839-1914) who reigned as the monarch of Romania from 1866 until his death.
These bridges were built to jointly provide a link between the town of Cernavodă on the right bank of the Danube River and the city of Fetesti on the left side of that river’s Borcea branch. The bridges were originally connected via a viaduct on the island of Balta Ialomiţei on the Danube. (This viaduct was replaced with an embankment put into place there during the 1960s.)
The King Carol I Bridge was designed by engineer Anghel Saligny (1854-1925). Construction on this complex began in 1890. On the day that the King Carol I Bridge was inaugurated, a total of 15 locomotives traveled across the complex. They were followed by a train carrying several dignitaries for the big event. At the time, this infrastructure – with a length of 13,411.9 feet (4,087 meters) – collectively constituted one of the longest bridges in the world.
The King Carol I Bridge has since been renamed in honor of the engineer who designed it. The Anghel Saligny Bridge, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Monuments of Romania, remained in service until 1987. (The accompanying photo of the segment of this complex crossing the main branch of the Danube was taken in 2017.)
Photo Credit: smiley.toerist (licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en)
For more information on the Anghel Saligny Bridge (originally called the King Carol I Bridge), please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Carol_I_Bridge
Additional information on Anghel Saligny is available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anghel_Saligny
A list of bridges in Romania can be viewed at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bridges_in_Romania
Transportation History 