Queen Louise Bridge over the Neman River

A temporary bridge over Memel was built by Russian troops in 1758 during the Seven Years' War. In 1767, they threw a new bridge, which rested on 36 pontoons and was 340 m long. In the middle part he moved apart for the passage of ships and rafts. In the winter and during the spring flood and ice drift, the bridge was raised. This bridge was burned by the retreating Russian and Prussian troops in 1807. A year later, the bridge was restored on pontoons. In 1904, the construction of 416 m long Queen Louise bridge (the width of the river in this place reached 220 m) began. The bridge was supported by two bulls and the rise of its three arches became famous as a symbol of the city. On October 18, 1907, the bridge was opened for traffic in honor of the centenary of the Treaties of Tilsit.

Silver and bronze commemorative medals were minted in honor of the event. From the side of the city, a gate-shaped arch with turrets made of sandstone was installed, the gleam of which in the late Renaissance style was close to the Danzig motifs. The portal was decorated with Queen Louise bas-relief, which was a cartouche (3.6 m wide, 4 m high), modeled by sculptor Stephan Walter in Friedenau and cast in bronze by Martin and Piltsing in Berlin. Above the pedestrian walkways were two bas-reliefs, personifying movement on water and on land. The bridge was 12 m, the roadway was 7.2 m wide. The rails of the narrow-gauge railway line to Mikitten (present Mikitai, Lithuania), extended in 1913 to Shmalleningken (present Smalininkai, Lithuania), were laid on the roadway. The middle part of the bridge consisted of three filigree iron arches, each 105.6 m long; the maximum height of each arch was 19 m. The raising part of the bridge, thanks to electric drives, could raise upright in one minute. The decoration of the bridge was the main portal, lined with Gotland sandstone. On both sides of the portal crowned with turrets, stylized Baroque. The bridge of Queen Louise did not last long – on October 20, 1944, it was blown up by the Wehrmacht several days before the Red Army left for the right bank of the river.

  By July 1947 a new wooden bridge was put into operation, only the portal remained from the old one. The date ‘1907’ which was easily replaced by ‘1947’ was seen on it. In 1964, the place of Queen Louise bas-relief took the emblem of the USSR. Machine houses have lost their pointed-tiled roofs, and the manual mechanism for lifting the folding span is working to this day. By spring of 1965, the wooden bridge had ceased to exist. The modern bridge was built in 1965-1966. Restoration of the portal was made in 2002-2003. During the work, Queen Louise bas-relief regained its historical place.