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

wagon. Each side had room for an 80 cm wide walkway as well. It was the very image of comfort and beauty. At night 16 lights like so many fireflies illuminated the bridge, painted in lively colours. The bridge was opened at dawn and noon to let boats pass through at the middle where a statue of Saint John of Nepomuk stood. Its head girdled with a wreath of stars, the statue held a cross in its hands, and a small, red lamp at the feet kept an eternal flame, a message of their patron saint to boatmen and everyone living on or from the water. On May 16, when the feast of John of Nepomuk was held, the statue was decorated with flowers.

Traffic on the bridge was strictly regulated. Horses had to be led by reins, wagons could proceed only slowly, and smoking was strictly prohibited.

And there was more inconvenience. The ramp offered a very steep entrance-especially on the Pest bank and at low water levels-where ox wagons often skidded. Almost not a year passed without an incident. The opening of the bridge twice daily was also a troublesome operation. The barks passing through frequently swept away one or more of the bridge’s floating supports, interrupting its operation for several days at a time. Unexpected early drifts of ice, severe floods or windstorms could also seriously damage the structure.

By the early 1800s everybody was aware of the need for a permanent bridge to overcome these difficulties. Reservations notwithstanding, the idea was received favourably by an ever growing number of people. When the Reform Era, the golden age of the Hungarian spirit, set in the idea of a permanent bridge had enough support to carry the day eventually.

In 1832 a journalist celebrated the first signs in Hungarian which appeared on the pontoon bridge. “I wish an iron or granite arm extended between the two cities across the capricious Danube. People of our cities could also hold each other in permanent embrace,” he wrote poetically. Not only did the

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