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

ular maintenance. The 1976 catastrophe of the Reichsbrücke in Vienna was a warning of what might happen if such work is neglected.

The latest operation was a three-week campaign in 1985 when corrosion prevention was carried out, renewing the white bridal costume of the bridge.

The rings close

Elizabeth is the queen of Budapest’s bridges and it is in fact named after the beloved Hungarian queen. This bridge, more than any of the others, interfered excessively with the urban structure. Two districts of old Pest and Buda vanished completely, the core of the Inner City and the Tabán, whose small houses at the foot of the Gellért Hill belonged to the old, romantic and much loved atmosphere of the fast growing city.

New traffic axes and new junctions were created at a fast pace, determining new directions in the development of the city. Two more bridges were needed to continue and complete the principle of concentric rings reaching to the Danube. One was at the end of the Great Boulevard, at the border of Józsefváros and Ferencváros (Joseph Town and Francis Town) districts. The other was at the northern juncture of the outermost rings, between Óbuda and a northward-extending Pest.

The first one was built before World War II. The new bridge was simply called Boráros Square Bridge until it was officially named after Miklós Horthy, the regent of Hungary at that time. The idea had been on the table since 1892 but the decision to actually build the bridge was not made until 1927. In the same year an international tender was announced. The first prize was awarded to János Kossalka and Gyula Wälder. Pál Sávoly, then a young engineer who some thirty years later designed the new Elizabeth Bridge, won third prize. Tenders and prizes notwithstanding, a fourth engineer was

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