Most Łazienkowski, Warszawa

Most Łazienkowski is a steel crossing over the Vistula, linking Warsaw through the Łazienkowska Thoroughfare. Named for Łazienki Park and Łazienki Palace, it became a landmark of modern transport engineering and underwent major reconstruction after the fire of 2015.

Most Łazienkowski is Warsaw’s broad crossing of the Vistula: a steel bridge carried on five spans. Its deck runs for 423 metres and measures 28 metres across, with three vehicle lanes in each direction as well as routes for cycles and pedestrians. The structure makes a long, level line over the river, built for movement on an urban scale.

The bridge takes its name from Łazienki Park and Łazienki Palace, which lie southwest of this crossing. It was built from 1971 to 1974 as part of the Łazienkowska Thoroughfare, opening on the twenty-second of July 1974. Its most dramatic chapter came on the fourteenth of February 2015.

A fire began beneath the eastern end during work to remove combustible material from a maintenance corridor. Heat reached about one thousand degrees Celsius and damaged the load-bearing steel badly enough to require major reconstruction. The repair cost 104 million złoty. Beneath the deck, gangways added in 2017 now give cyclists and pedestrians direct access from the Vistula embankments, separating them from the rush of road traffic above.