page_title: Branko's Bridge
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Branko's Bridge / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Bike elevator at Branko bridge in Belgrade Serbia Српски / srpski: Lift za bicikliste na Brankovom mostu u Beogradu
context_page_description: Branko's bridge is the second-largest bridge of Belgrade, Serbia, connecting the city center with New Belgrade across Sava river. Built in 1956 on the foundations of the 1934 King Alexander Bridge, which was destroyed in World War II, it reconnected Belgrade and Zemun as the only motorway bridge at the time. After several official and unofficial names, the present name stuck after the Brankova Street, which extends into the bridge from the direction of the old section of Belgrade.
context_section_description: The bridge was built in 1956, replacing the former chain-stayed King Alexander Bridge (built by a joint venture of Gutehoffnungshütte and Société de Construction des Batignolles) that was opened on 16 December 1934 and blown up in 1941. The bridge actually uses lower parts of the former bridge's pylons (decorated by Ivan Meštrović with two couples of reinforced concrete in Serbo-Byzantium style) as outer constraints for its two secondary spans. It is 450 m (1,480 ft) long, made as continuous steel box girder, with central span of 261 m (856 ft) and side spans of 81 m (266 ft) each. It is crossed by nearly 90,000 vehicles daily, and traffic congestions are frequent.
  German company MAN is behind the original project of the bridge. Belgrade-based "Mostprojekt" company executed the project of doubling the bridge capacity in the 1970s. Head of the project team was Danilo Dragojević. Since the works were finished in 1979, the bridge has dual carriageway with three lanes in both directions and actually consists of two separate constructions in each direction.
  In the Interbellum, the trams connected Belgrade to Zemun via King Alexander I bridge. After the war, in the 1950s, the general idea was that trolleybuses should take over the major role in the public transportation. Line to Zemun was opened in 1956, and in time three lines over the bridge were formed: Line 14 – Zeleni Venac-Gornji Grad (Zemun)  (which was considered a successor line to the pre-war tram line), Line 15 – Zeleni Venac-Novi Grad (Zemun) and Line 16 – Zeleni Venac-Pohorska, New Belgrade. The lines were closed in 1973. However, as of 2017, over 25 bus lines of public transport crosses the bridge.
caption: Bicycle elevator on the Old Belgrade bank of Sava river
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