Rostokinsky Aqueduct
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Rostokinsky Aqueduct, also known as Millionny Bridge, is a stone aqueduct over Yauza river in Rostokino District of Moscow, Russia, built in 1780-1804. It is the only remaining aqueduct in Moscow, once a part of Mytishchi Water Supply, Moscow's first centralized water utility.
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[edit] History
The Aqueduct was commissioned by Catherine II of Russia to engineer Friedrich Wilhelm Bauer. Catherine authorized 1.1 million rouble expenditure and 400 soldiers[1]. Builders used second-hand stone left by demolition of Bely Gorod fortifications. Construction, frequently interrupted, dragged for 25 years, as the soldier engineers were summoned to the war with Turkey (1787-1792) and various other jobs. In the process, both Catherine and Bauer died. Colonel Ivan Gerard lead the project after Bauer's death in 1783. Catherine's son, Paul I, had to issue 400,000 roubles financing; Alexander I added 200,000 roubles. Finally, the aqueduct was completed at an unprecedented cost of 2 million roubles [2], thus the name Millionny Bridge.
[edit] Specifications
Total length 356 meters, height over Yauza level 19 м. 21 arches, each spans 8,5 meters. Original masonry water canal (0.9 meter wide, 1.2 meter high[3] was replaced with iron pipe in 1850s.
Water flowed naturally through a 20-kilometer masonry canal to a system of fountain taps; in 1892, the system was uprated with construction of pumps and water reservoires in the city[4]. Mytishchi Water Supply was closed in 1937, when a superior water supply, a part of Moscow Canal project, was completed.
[edit] Ichka Aqueduct (demolished)
A smaller, single-span aqueduct over river Ichka was built during the 1888-1892 modernization of Mytishchi system. It was destroyed in 1997 to make way for MKAD highway[5].
[edit] References
- ^ Moscow Water Museum data, Water Museum
- ^ Moscow Water Museum figure. Other sources put it at 1.60 and 1.648 millin roubles
- ^ Russian: Энциклопедия "Москва", 2004 (Moscow Encyclopedia, 2004)
- ^ Russian: История одного водопровода, "Энергия промышленного роста" N 6[7] June 2006www.epr-magazine.ru
- ^ Russian: www.archi-tec.ru
