Pitkäsilta

The Pitkaesilta, Finnish for Long Bridge, has connected the bourgeois centre of Helsinki with the northeastern district of Kallio since 1912, spanning the Toolonlahti inlet. Runar Eklund designed the stone arch structure in late Finnish Art Nouveau, with sturdy granite piers and discreet classicising details. During the Finnish Civil War of 1918 the bridge marked the front line between the bourgeois Whites in the south and the social democratic Reds in the working-class districts to the north, and remained a symbolic boundary between rich and poor well into the 20th century. Bullet holes from 1918 can still be made out in the base stones. Today trams, cyclists and pedestrians cross this busy link to fashionable Kallio.