169. St. Petersburg Bridges - Bolshoy Petrovsky Most
I've already written about the December 1916 murder of Grigory Rasputin, after visiting the rooms in Yusupov Palace where the deed was done. After learning all the sordid details, there remained one place that I wanted to visit in St. Petersburg related to this event: the bridge where Prince Felix Yusupov and his co-conspirators dumped Rasputin's body (allegedly, he was not quite dead yet) after poisoning, bludgeoning, and shooting him. They had to drive all around the city to find a suitable location - one that was removed from prying eyes, and where the river had not yet frozen completely over so that the water could claim his body.
The Bolshoy Petrovskiy Bridge met these criteria. To reach this remote bridge, they had to drive from Yusupov Palace through the city center, north across the Bolshaya Neva River to Vasilyevsky Island, north again across the Malaya Neva River, and then either through Petrovsky Island to reach the bridge directly or to Krestovsky Island and back south to the bridge (I'm not sure whether history has recorded which route they took). At any rate, it's not a short drive - at least 20-30 minutes to get there by either route, with today's roads and normal traffic conditions.
The bridge currently in this location was not the span in place in 1916; the wooden bridge originally constructed in 1838 was upgraded several times during the twentieth century. The current Bolshoy Petrovsky Most was installed in 2010. It's no longer a rickety wooden structure that would draw the attention of pedestrians if a wooden support beam were covered in the blood of a murdered holy man / political advisor.
If I were to kill someone in St. Petersburg, this bridge still looks like an excellent place to dispose of a corpse. It's relatively secluded, and most people enter or exit Krestovsky Island from bridges to the east, or from the Krestovsky Ostrov Metro station to the north. I did see a few pedestrians crossing the bridge while I was in the area on a Saturday afternoon, but I think this was an unusually busy time of day because people were walking to the stadium on Krestovsky Island (to watch FC Zenit defeat FC Ural by a score of 2-1).
The Bolshoy Petrovskiy Bridge met these criteria. To reach this remote bridge, they had to drive from Yusupov Palace through the city center, north across the Bolshaya Neva River to Vasilyevsky Island, north again across the Malaya Neva River, and then either through Petrovsky Island to reach the bridge directly or to Krestovsky Island and back south to the bridge (I'm not sure whether history has recorded which route they took). At any rate, it's not a short drive - at least 20-30 minutes to get there by either route, with today's roads and normal traffic conditions.
The bridge currently in this location was not the span in place in 1916; the wooden bridge originally constructed in 1838 was upgraded several times during the twentieth century. The current Bolshoy Petrovsky Most was installed in 2010. It's no longer a rickety wooden structure that would draw the attention of pedestrians if a wooden support beam were covered in the blood of a murdered holy man / political advisor.
If I were to kill someone in St. Petersburg, this bridge still looks like an excellent place to dispose of a corpse. It's relatively secluded, and most people enter or exit Krestovsky Island from bridges to the east, or from the Krestovsky Ostrov Metro station to the north. I did see a few pedestrians crossing the bridge while I was in the area on a Saturday afternoon, but I think this was an unusually busy time of day because people were walking to the stadium on Krestovsky Island (to watch FC Zenit defeat FC Ural by a score of 2-1).
Comments
Post a Comment