Images

The Franz Josef bridge, Novi Sad, 1883–1941

People on the shore by the bridge

1910s

About this place

The Emperor Franz Joseph bridge was the first permanent crossing of the Danube at Novi Sad and it carried the railway, not the road. It went up in 1883, the year the line from Subotica reached the town in March and the stretch onward to Zemun opened in December, and it stood for fifty-eight years. After 1918 it was renamed for Prince Andrej of the Yugoslav royal house. The Yugoslav army blew it up in April 1941 to slow the German advance southward, and the occupiers put up a replacement railway bridge that they in turn destroyed as they withdrew in 1944. This archive's catalogue gives the length as 432 metres and credits the design to Karl Baumann, who is said also to have driven the tunnel under the Petrovaradin fortress.

Danube crossing between Novi Sad and Petrovaradin

Sources: sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Мостови_Новог_Сада · sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Нови_Сад · catalogue records 58d2eaa6154b and a383e756232a in this archive

Franz Josef Bridge

Images

The Franz Josef bridge

Franz Josef railway bridge

The bridge over a wooden rail

People on the shore by the bridge