European Bridges Trivia Quiz

Answer: Queen Victoria

There have been a few bridges in the location where Blackfriars Bridge was built and opened in 1869. The bridge crosses the River Thames. It was built around the same time Queen Victoria Street in London opened and the bridge connects with that street.

The bridge is decorated with ornately carved water foul and marine mammals in stone. A statue of Queen Victoria can also be seen at the north of the bridge. The name Blackfriars refers to the Black Friars, a group of Dominican friars. St. Paul's Cathedral can be seen in the panorama from the bridge.

Answer: Vltava

The Charles Bridge was originally built in 1402 under the name Stone Bridge. It was later changed to the Prague Bridge before becoming the Charles Bridge in 1870 after King Charles IV. Historically, the bridge served an important purpose as it was the easiest way for Northern and Western Europe to trade with the South and East of the continent.

Nowadays, the Charles Bridge is probably most famous for its thirty plus statues that line it. The statues depict important saints in Bohemia. None of them are the originals.

Answer: The bells are ringing from St. Mark's

The Bridge of Sighs is made of limestone. During the 17th century, the bridge spanned the gap between the Doge's Palace and the New Prison. The legend that prisoners would sigh from the bridge before their incarceration is incorrect. By the time the bridge was built, prisoners were no longer kept nearby on a regular basis. Also, the bridge does not have a great view of the city because it is enclosed and the windows were shut with stone grates.

Answer: It means New Bridge but it is the oldest bridge crossing the Seine

When it was built in 1607, it was the newest bridge across the Seine. However, since then all of the other bridges have been renovated and renamed leaving the New Bridge as the oldest bridge. Pont Neuf connects the left bank of the Seine with the Ile de la Cite, which is said to be the birthplace of Paris. There are several other small islands nearby, including Ile aux Juifs where the last grand master of the Knights Templar was executed.

A daguerreotype of the Pont Neuf is believed to contain the very first of its kind to show a human. The daguerreotype was taken by Louis Daguerre in 1835 and shows two workers near the statue of Henry IV. This was not discovered until years afterward.

Answer: Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie

After the assassination, Princip became a hero of sorts in Yugoslavia and the bridge was temporarily renamed after him.

Latin Bridge is considered to be the oldest bridge in Sarajevo that is still traversable today. It is not exactly known when it was built, but the Latin Bridge existed in 1541 but was made of wood then not stone. It was destroyed by a flood in 1791 and rebuilt in 1799. The bridge's most iconic features are its eyes, two round openings in the pillars.

Answer: I have built a bridge that will last forever

The Latin inscription reads "Pontem perpetui mansurum in saecula" which means "I have built a bridge that will last forever." The statement has not yet proved to be false because the bridge still stands nearly 2,000 years later, although parts of the original have been destroyed, mostly due to warfare.

Some repairs were made in the 19th century and the bridge was spared damage during both world wars and the Spanish Civil War, all of which saw Spain's infrastructure suffer greatly.

Answer: Lions

The winged lions are sometimes called griffins. It is said that if a person touches one of the lion's paws, they will soon become wealthy. The lions have since become a symbol of St. Petersburg and have become a popular tourist attraction, more so than the bridge itself.

The Bank Bridge is a relatively short pedestrian bridge that crosses the Griboyedov Canal.

Answer: Malmo

The Oresund Bridge the strait of the same name. It runs from Sweden to the artificial Danish island called Peberholm, which was created specifically for the bridge. In order to go from Malmo to Copenhagen, one must first cross the five-mile bridge and then drive another two and half miles through an underwater tunnel. The reason the bridge could not span the entire distance was because it would be too close to the Copenhagen airport.

Like most boundaries between the EU countries, there are no passport check on the bridge but there are occasional random customs stops. The random stops only occur when entering Sweden and not Denmark. Sweden also temporarily began checking passports on a regular basis in January 2016 to prevent an influx of Middle Eastern migrants.

Answer: Square/plaza

The Muntplein is the widest bridge in Amsterdam and it also serves as a town square. It is bridge number one in the Amsterdam numbering system of bridges. The Muntplein was once called Schapenplein and Sophiaplein, which mean Sheep Square and Sophia Square, respectively.

The Muntplein is so wide it contains six streets, various buildings and floating flower market. It is its own stop on various different tram lines. It was also once home to the Dutch mint.

Answer: Human sacrifice

It was widely believed in Balkan culture that great feats of engineering required a human sacrifice so it would not collapse. Indeed, there are stories that at the end of the work day, laborers would see their day's work collapse until they made such an offering.

Today the bridge is a footbridge in western Greece and once served as the line of demarcation between Greece and the Ottoman Empire.