Most Średzki Zachodni, Wrocław

Most Średzki Zachodni is the western crossing in the Średzkie Bridges group, a set of four bridges in the Leśnica area of Wrocław. This one spans a side channel rather than the main course of the Bystrzyca: it was once a millrace carrying water away from Leśnica Mill. River engineering connected with the Mietków Reservoir has reduced that former mill channel to its final stretch, now supplied by the Leśna stream.

The bridge complex follows Kosmonautów and Średzka streets, on National Road ninety-four. Its layout records Wrocław’s changing transport needs. The earlier pair of bridges was built in nineteen forty-eight after the wartime destruction of the previous crossings.

Tram tracks reached Leśnica over these bridges in nineteen fifty-two, but growing traffic eventually created a bottleneck: two tram tracks narrowed to one before the old crossings, and trams shared the roadway with cars. In nineteen ninety-five, a parallel pair of new bridges solved that conflict. Trams now use two tracks on the new bridges, while road vehicles remain on the older pair.