End of an era: Prague neighborhood loses 130-year-old railway bridge

Construction workers in Prague dismantled a railway bridge in the city's Holešovice neighborhood on Saturday afternoon. While not nearly as large as the historic Railway Bridge at Výtoň, which spans the Vltava river, the bridge was a long-lasting sight in Prague 7 that separated Holešovice from the Výstaviště exhibition grounds for more than a century.

The railway bridge was dismantled alongside plans to build a new rail line from Prague's city center to its Airport, which are currently underway in Prague 7. The full airport railway line is expected to be operational by 2030.

The railway bridge itself was built alongside the construction of the Výstaviště Exhibition Grounds in 1891, to celebrate a century since the first Bohemian industrial exhibition 100 years earlier. It was a representative piece of railway construction from the late 19th century, and served train traffic for 130 years.

On Saturday afternoon, onlookers in Prague 7 watched a construction crew lift the steel bridge up off its former stone supports, and carefully place it on the ground at nearby Strojnická street.

On Sunday morning, the bridge was transported to the Masarykovo nádraží train station, where a new museum dedicated to railway travel in the Czech Republic will be created in the near future.

The historic steel bridge will be a centerpiece of the new museum, which will be created under the auspices of the National Technical Museum. The stone foundation will also be transported to the new museum to support the bridge.

"After it arrives at the future museum, the bridge will be placed on temporary supports," construction administrator Eva Schreierová told reporters on Saturday. "Ultimately, it will stand in the museum atop the stone supports it once stood near the Exhibition Center. But we will be dismantling the supports over the course of the next week."

As construction crews continue to work in the area of Prague 7 where the bridge once stood, tram traffic in the area will be disrupted over the course of the next week between the Strossmayerovo náměstí and Výstaviště stops. Normal service will resume from April 25.

The now-empty space where the bridge had stood for 130 years will eventually become a modernized overpass and part of the new line from Prague Airport to the city center. Work on the new rail line in Prague 7 will continue over the course of the next two years.