Nusle Bridge in Prague

Nusle Bridge is 485 metres long and 26.5 metres wide. It has a reinforced concrete frame construction and four pillars. It is a prestressed concrete bridge in Prague. It spans Nusle Valley and links Pankrác and the more distant south-east part of the city with Karlov and the city centre. The bridge surface carries a two-direction, six-lane north-south highway and inside the bridge there is an underground tube. The first plans and architectonic contests and studies on bridging of Nusle Valley were realized several time as early as during the First Czechoslovak Republic. However, the construction of a new bridge over Nusle Valley started to be urgent only after a large number of houses started to be built on the plain of Pankrác. In 1970 a static loading test was carried out using 66 tanks that came to Prague from the regiment of Rakovník. The dynamic test was even carried out using rocket engines. The original railing was 1 metre high but the bridge was popular with suicides, therefore a net 1.5 metres wide was suspended below the railing and 6 years later the hight of the railing was increased to 2.7 metres. In September 2007 the railing was completed with a superstructure made of flexible and slippery sheet that not even mountain climbers were able to overcome during tests. The total of 200-300 people took their own life there by jumping down to the valley.