Buza Péter: Bridges of the Danube - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1999)

was remade to provide comfortable crossing for notabilities and representatives coming from the eastern part of the country. Contemporary records suggest that it was no mean vessel for its time. The catamaran had a total length of 38 metres with a deck surface of more than 250 square metres. Its double mast connected by crossbeams supporting the sliding rope towered 7 metres above the deck.

By 1790, however, and for probably already some 20 years before that, a pontoon bridge provided more or less easy crossing between Buda and Pest from early spring to late autumn. Forming a sickle gently arched upstream, it consisted of 40-50 firmly anchored robust hulls manufactured by Franz Joseph Süftnegger, a carpenter from Passau. Noblemen, soldiers, and students excepted, everyone wishing to cross the river on foot had to pay a penny at the toll booths by the abutments. The treasury and the city had their share of the bridge toll, with plenty left over for the lessees of the bridge responsible for its smooth operation.

The carriageway of the bridge was divided by a beam into lanes each wide enough for a loaded

Toll was collected for crossing on the pontoon bridge

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