Årstabroarna

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Årstabroarna are two parallel railway viaducts in central Stockholm, Sweden. Passing over the watercourse of Årstaviken and the islets Årsta holmar, they connect the major island Södermalm to the southern mainland district Årsta.åEastern Årsta BridgeThe eastern bridge, the older of the two and still often referred to as Årstabron, is still in operation almost 80 years after its inauguration in 1929. When projected in the early 1920s, an agreement between the state and the city stipulated the arterial railway passing through the city had to be made independent of the sea route passing beneath it. It was therefore decided that the railway should be relocated to a bridge passing over Årsta holmar, with a horizontal clearance of 26 metres ensured by a bascule bridge over the northern passage, and a truss arch bridge over the southern passage offering a span of 100 metres.In front of a reworked agreement in 1925, the city, intending to add an iron roadway passing above the present railway, required the bridge to be reinforced accordingly, and additionally it was decided the planned bascule bridge should be replaced by a lift bridge. The plans were carried through and the 753m bridge opened in 1929.The bridge, on its completion the longest bridge in Sweden, was designed be the architect Cyrillus Johansson and the engineers Ernst Nilsson and Salomon Kasarnowsky . It has often been compared to a classical Roman aqueduct, and is today declared a historical landmark.