Why Peter the Great did not want to build bridges in St. Petersburg

St. Petersburg, founded by Peter the Great in 1703, is spread over many islands. It is not surprising that a city with such a layout should have a huge number of bridges. Now they, indeed, in the city are not one hundred. But Peter himself was convinced that bridges in St. Petersburg should be erected only in case of emergency.
Why did he think so? The thing is that the ruler dreamed of seeing the new city such as his beloved Amsterdam, where people move from one island to another on boats. So Peter wanted to instill in the townspeople a craving for water walks, albeit short-lived. In addition, bridges hampered shipping, and
Petersburg was to become the largest seaport of Europe.

Sometimes Peter made an exception, allowing to build a bridge, necessary for transportation of important cargoes. So in 1703 a wooden bridge was constructed, connecting the Birch and Hare islands. This was necessary for the delivery of building materials to the Peter and Paul Fortress.
The problem with the bridges began to be solved only after the death of the emperor. And, for a long time the capital bridges were not erected, considering that it is too dangerous: frequent floods and storms could destroy them. We built so-called "floating" bridges. As support, "plowshoots" were used small flat boats, on which the bridge itself was fixed.
One of such bridges, Isaakievsky, the Empress Anna Ioanovna even used as a means of replenishing the treasury: the transition was paid. From foot they took 1 copeck, from a horse 2 copecks, and if someone from the nobility decided to pass on the bridge in a carriage, it was required to pay a whole "nickle". For that time the amount is decent.
Elizaveta Petrovna abolished the payment for using the bridge in 1754.

The construction of the first major bridge across the Neva began only in the middle of the XIX century in 1850. Admiralteysky and Vasilievsky islands connected a new bridge, which was named Blagoveshchensky, since he went to the Annunciation Square. Interesting,
that over these years the bridge was renamed more than once. From 1855 to 1918 years. he was called Nikolayevsky. From 1918 to 2007 he wore the name of Lieutenant Schmidt, and in 2007 the original name Blagoveshchensky was returned.

The lack of bridges in St. Petersburg led to the fact that even at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries there was an "ice tram" in the city.
This new type of transport for the city appeared here in 1895. But moving from one island to another was difficult because of the lack of quality bridges. Then the engineers found the original way out in winter, frozen rails were laid along the ice of the frozen Neva, the poles on which the wires were stretched were frozen, and passengers could easily navigate the city.
It is interesting that the engineers took this issue very seriously: during the existence of the "ice tram" (1895 1910), there was not a single major accident.

The innovation of St. Petersburg was liked in Nizhny Novgorod and Arkhangelsk, where similar "ice" trams also appeared.

Many townspeople also used the services of boatmen.
The largest transportation was in the area of ​​the modern Gagarin street. By the way, the name of the street has nothing to do with the world's first cosmonaut there was a pier belonging to Prince Gagarin.