1829 it was proposed to build a rope ferry to transport across the Dnieper; this was built to a design that the Tsar had approved for use all over the Russian empire, and could carry a dozen carts. The ferry closed when the Kichkas Bridge replaced it in 1904.
The railway
The original railway bridge over the Dnieper was the Kichkas (??????????) Bridge, which was designed by YD Proskuryakov and EO Paton. Construction was supervised by FW Lat. The bridge had a span of 336 m, and crossed the river with single arch of 190 m span. The upper tier carried a double-track railway line, whilst the lower tier was a road bridge with pedestrian walkways either side of the bridge. It was built at the narrowest part of the Dnieper river at Volch?ego Gorla (Wolf Throat). Construction started in 1900, and it opened for pedestrian traffic in 1902. The official opening of the bridge was 17 April 1904; though railway traffic on the bridge only commenced on 22 January 1908. The opening of the Kichkas Bridge led to the industrial growth of Alexandrovsk before the communist revolution.
Civil war
The Kichkas Bridge was of strategic importance during the Russian Civil War, and carried troops, ammunition, the wounded and medical supplies. Because of this bridge, Alexandrovsk and its environs was the scene of fierce fighting from 1918 to 1921 between the Red Army and the White armies of Denikin and Wrangel, Petliura and German-Austrian troops, and after their defeat, the struggle with insurgents led by Grigoriev, and Makhno. The bridge was closed a number of times because of damage. The most serious damage was inflicted by Makhno's troops when they retreated from Alexandrovsk in 1920 and blew a 40 m wide gap in the centre of the bridge.
People's Commissar of Railways Dzerzhinsky ordered the repair of the bridge. The metallurgic plant of Bryansk joint-stock company (Petrovsky plant at present) in Dnipropetrovsk built a replacement section, which was
