Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge

The Great Moskvoretsky Bridge is a 554-meter-long, 40-meter-wide steel bridge that has carried road traffic across the Moskva river east of the Kremlin since 1937. It was built under Stalin's plan to modernize Moscow and replaced an older bridge from the nineteenth century. The structure is best known for Mathias Rust, who on 28 May 1987 flew a Cessna 172 from Helsinki through Soviet air defenses and landed on this bridge beside Red Square. The stunt led to the dismissal of the Soviet defense minister. Today the Bolshaya Moskvoretskaya road crosses here, and pedestrians get a panoramic view of the Kremlin towers and Saint Basil's Cathedral.