If we don't speak about museums, two things are associated with St. Petersburg for a tourist: white nights and rising bridges. Raised bridges are mentioned in literature, poems, songs and even in advertising clips. Night raising bridges to let ships go through Neva River takes place much longer that white nights and begins very soon, with opening navigation. This year it happens on April, 30. As soon as the nights are rather dark now, the bridges are illuminated, turning rising into a show.

Big cultural meaning of St. Petersburg drawbridges can confirm the fact that activists of scandalous art group Voina (War) have chosen a drawbridge for one of actions. They turned a bridge into an art object. As the Liteiny Bridge opened to let ships pass down the Neva, the erect phallus - 65m tall and 27m across - sent an unmistakable message to a building directly opposite - the local headquarters of the KGB's successors, the Federal Security Service.

But even nothing is drawn on the bridge, regardless to darkness or light, raising bridges is an affecting spectacle. Timetable for it is already available and looks like the following. Raising bridges will take place every night since April, 30, with beginning of navigation.

Timetable for raising bridges remains the same, like last year:

Dvortsovy Bridge will be raised from 1.25 till 4.50;
Troitsky Bridge- from 1.35 till 4.50;
Liteiny Bridge 1.40 till 4.45;
Peter I The Great Bridge (former Bolsheokhtinsky) from 2.00 till 5.00;
Alexander Nevsky Bridge - since 2.20 till 5.10
Birzhevoy Bridge will be raised from 2.00 till 4.55.

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Finally, the following bridges will be raised twice a night:

Blagoveshchensky Bridge (former Lieutenant Schmidt bridge), the nearest to the Gulf of Finland, will be raised two times a night, from 1.25 till 2.45 and from 3.10 till 5.00;
Tuchkov Bridge - from 2.00 till 2.55 and from 3.35 till 4.55;
Sampsonievsky Bridge - from 2.10 till 2.45 and from 3.20 till 4.25;
Volodarsky Bridge - from 2.00 till 3.45 and from 4.15 till 5.45;
Kantemirovsky and Grenadersky Bridges- from 2.45 till 3.45 and 4.20 till 4.50.

Short periods of bringing bridges together in the middle of the night let getting from one shore to another when underground is already closed. Moreover, there is Bolshoy Obukhovsky Bridge, which is not raised. Spans of this cable-stayed bridge have a rise large enough for passing ships. This bridge is a part of ring road and may be used when all the ways are closed because of bridges risen.

St. Petersburg raising bridges is one of top attractions of St. Petersburg: every night thousands of tourists crowd on embankments to look at raising of illuminated bridges. It is supposed that transit navigation on Neva will extend from April, 30 till to November, 15. Here you can see the Map of St. Petersburg with drawbridges.

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