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

Yet for a hundred years already these turuls have been the indispensable grips of local residents with a morbid desire to attract attention or seeking a quick and sure way to end it all. Budapest firemen have always had the honour of climbing up to rescue them.

Elizabeth, the world record holder

One of the several plans by William Tierney Clark envisioned a bridge leading to the heart of the old Inner City, to Eskü Square by the Parish Church, where the narrowest stretch of the Danube is located. In fact the river is so narrow there, that no more than one pier could stand in the river without interfering with the boat traffic. Considering what kind of engineering virtuosity is required to solve this problem, the next step was to conceive a singlespan chain bridge with no pier at all. A daring but attractive idea.

Several decades later the Elizabeth Bridge was finally built at that site. As the Chain Bridge was the symbol of Hungary’s modernization, so was the Eskü Square Bridge to symbolize the Golden Age of Hungary. Later the Miklós Horthy Bridge was the

The old town disappeared without a trace

WHEN THE FOURTH BRIDGE WAS BUILT

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