The SNP Bridge (with 'UFO')

The SNP Bridge across the Danube River in Bratislava is unique in Europe! Its steal construction hanging on one pylon weights more than 7,000 tons. The bridge has been in use since 1972 and was awarded the prize 'The building of the 20th century', however, the price for this success was destruction of a large part of historical extramural settlement.

Constructed between 1967 and 1972 across the river Danube, the SNP Bridge (formerly known as the New Bridge - Nový most), after the Slovak National Uprising (Slovenské národné povstanie) - is perhaps the city's most distinctive structure. Its designers, Jozef Lacko and Arpád Tesár, decided to suspend the steel deck of the bridge from a single pylon. 

At the top of the pylon, at a height of 80 metres (242.47 feet), is a restaurant connected to the bridge itself via an inclined high-speed lift housed within one of the pylon's columns, as well as via an emergency staircase with 430 steps inside the other column. The bridge is 431.8 metres (472.2 yards) long and 21 metres (23 yards) wide. The total mass of the steel structure, including the pylon, is 7,537 tons.

(Photos © Tomáš Šereda / www.ttstudio.sk)