Śląsko-Dąbrowski Bridge

Direct Vistula link from Warsaw's Old Town to Praga, built between 1947 and 1949 on the piers of the Kierbedz Bridge blown up in 1944. The Kierbedz Bridge of 1864 had been the city's first iron road bridge and a symbol of industrial modernisation in tsarist-ruled Warsaw. After its destruction by the Wehrmacht, the young People's Republic of Poland routed the new east-west thoroughfare (Trasa W-Z) over the same stone piers and opened it on the fifth anniversary of liberation in 1949. The bridge connects Castle Square directly to Praga and remains one of the busiest axes in Warsaw. Hidden detail: under the Old Town approach runs the W-Z tunnel of 1949, a showcase of socialist transport planning.