Ten Bridges of Belgrade Trivia Quiz

Answer: A slogan

Branko's bridge is a 450 m long road girder bridge over the River Sava. It connects the densely populated areas of the old city and the modern parts of Belgrade, the New Belgrade. The first bridge in the same place was built back in 1934 and named the King Aleksandar I Bridge, after the then-king of Yugoslavia.

It was a chain-stayed bridge with pylons decorated by famous sculptor Ivan Mestrović, in Serb-Byzantine style. The bridge was partially destroyed in the German aerial bombardment on 6th of April 1941, and completely destroyed in the American bombardment in 1944.

After the war, the new bridge was built (conserving the same artistically valuable pylon) in 1955-57 and was named Most Bratstva i Jedinstva (Brotherhood and Unity bridge), but the name never really caught on.

Instead it was commonly known as Branko's Bridge, because it exits into Branko's Street (named after Branko Radičević, Serbian romanticist poet). However, when later Branko Ćopić, another known Serbian writer, committed suicide from the bridge, the confusion about its name became widespread.

A minority of people know the bridge by its formal name, Brotherhood and Unity Bridge.

Answer: A teacher

The Old Sava Bridge is a 410m long tied arch bridge, which serves as a combined road and tram bridge. Occupying German forces built the Old Sava Bridge in 1942, naming it Prinz Eugen. While the battle for the liberation of Belgrade was still raging in October of 1944, Germans laid the explosive to destroy the bridge on retreat.

However, citizen Miladin Zaric, a teacher, spotted the opportunity when the bridge was briefly unattended, and cut already lit wires connected to explosives, making this bridge one of the very few bridges in Europe which the retreating Germans did not manage to destroy.

In his testimony, he said he had studied the German activity around the bridge during the entire month, spotting the locations of explosives, cables etc.

After the war, the bridge was briefly know as 'German Bridge', but both of its names, formal and informal, were quickly forgotten. Tihi and Prle are fictitious characters in "Otpisani", the popular TV drama about the resistance in Belgrade during Nazi occupation.

Answer: gazelle

Gazela Bridge ("gazelle" in English) is part of the important European highways E-70 and E-75 that pass through the city center and lead to Greece and Bulgaria. It is by far the busiest Belgrade bridge, and is often jammed. On average, over 160,000 vehicles cross it every day, four times the number originally projected.

It was built in 1966-1970 by Belgrade company Mostogradnja. The bridge is 332m long.

Answer: Old Railroad Bridge

The Old Railroad Bridge (Stari Zeleznicki Most) has a rich wartime history. It was built for the first time in 1884, connecting railroad traffic between Belgrade, Serbia, and Zemun, at that time in Austria-Hungary. The bridge was destroyed in WWI, re-erected in 1919 and destroyed again in 1941 by the Yugoslav royal army to slow down Nazi advances. During the war, the Germans built the new bridge close by.

The American bombing of Belgrade in 1944 brought it down again, and Germans finished it off on retreat in 1944.

The bridge was re-erected again after the WWII. Its length is 350m, has a height of 13m.

Answer: New Railway Bridge

The New Railway Bridge (Novi Zeleznicki Most) is a cable-stayed, single span bridge over River Sava, that connects the Belgrade central railroad station Prokop with New Belgrade. The bridge, opened in 1979, is 1928m long. It was the first bridge in Europe to use cable-stayed girder system. It was designed by Nikola Hajdin, president of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

Answer: Its high price

Ada Bridge (Most na Adi), built over the Sava River, was constructed from 2008 - 2011. This bridge receives a big portion of the city's traffic, specifically to and from New Belgrade, and forms part of inner magistral ring. It also carries around one third of the metro lines' traffic.

This bridge has held the record in length for a single pylon suspension bridge, with a total length of 996 m (the main span 376 m). Pylon has 35,000 tons, and a height of 200 m. The bridge width is 45.5 m. The Discovery Channel made a one-hour long special on the bridge in its series "Extreme Engineering".

The pylon weight of 35,000 tons is amongst the biggest loads ever lifted. The bridge's price surged from the initial estimate of 161 million euros to more than 450 million euros.

The bridge construction was also criticized for three reasons: its central location, the high price, and ecological - endangering a species of cormorant (Phalacrocorax pygmeus) that were nesting in the nearby bush.

Answer: NATO

At 15.4 km from the river junction of Sava and Dunav, lays the railway steel truss bridge over Sava at Ostruznica. It has four 95m spans and reinforced concrete flood basins with length of 190 and 92 m, used for freight traffic. The total length is 658 m. The bridge was badly damaged during the 1999 NATO bombing, and reconstructed in 2006.

Answer: NATO

The bridge over Sava at Ostruznica, suburbs of Belgrade, is a highway girder bridge. It is a part of the ring around Belgrade that displaces the traffic to Croatia, Greece and Bulgaria around the city. It was built between 1990 and 1998, bombed by NATO in 1999, and reconstructed in 2004. Total length of the bridge is 1,790 m.

It crosses the river by 588 m long continuous steel structure, in five spans, the largest span having 198 m of length.

Answer: The Red Army Bridge

Panchevo bridge (Pancevacki most) was built in 1935 and named after King Peter the Second. It was built as WWI war reparations of Germany to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. During WWII, the Yugoslav royal army brought the bridge down to slow down Nazi advances.

The bridge was reconstructed in 1946, when president Tito named it the Red Army Bridge, in tribute to their role in its reconstruction. Panchevo bridge is a combined road and railroad truss bridge. It was the only bridge over the Danube not destroyed by Nato during its campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999.

The total length is 1526.4 m, and the main span is 1134.7 m long. Today this bridge, widely known as Pancevo Bridge, is in poor condition but is nevertheless the most important Belgrade bridge.

Answer: No

The construction of the bridge over the Danube connecting Zemun and Borca (parts of Belgrade) begun in 2011, and is scheduled to be finished by the end of 2013. It is built by Chinese companies and with Chinese credit, thus the nickname (Chinese Bridge). It is envisioned as a part of the outer ring around Belgrade. It is a motorway bridge, 1.507 m long, 29,1 meters wide and 22,8 meters tall.