57. St. Petersburg Bridges - Lvinyy Mostik ("Lion's Bridge")

Pictures of Lvinyy Mostik ("Lion's Bridge") often show up in St. Petersburg guidebooks. This pedestrian bridge features a huge stone lion sculpture anchoring each of the four corners. The bridge crosses the Griboyedov Channel in the western end of the city center. It's not especially close to a Metro station, Nevsky Prospekt, or most other major tourist destinations, so visitors are unlikely to chance upon it unless they're lost, and might not otherwise make the effort to visit. That's a shame because it really is an impressive sight. When I showed up on a warm July afternoon, several tour buses were parked nearby, but there weren't a whole lot of people around. Certainly not as compared with the bridges further north and east in the city center along the Neva, Moyka, and Fontanka rivers.