his was not cost-effective as it was cheaper to build a new bridge.
The building of the hydro-electric dam meant that a new bridge was required to take the railway over the Dnieper. Instead of having a single bridge, as before, it was decided to take the railway over the island of Khortytsia. The wide part of the river between Khortytsia and the city is known as the New Dnieper, and the narrower part between Khortytsia and the suburbs on the right bank of the river is known as the Old Dnieper. The New Dnieper was crossed by a three-arch two-tier bridge. Each of the arches has a span of 140 m; on left bank, however when the approach spans are included the total length is 715 m. The bridge weighed 8,480 tons. The Old Dnieper was crossed by a single span arch bridge; the bridge had a total length of 370 m; the arch having a span of 224 m, and was then the largest single span bridge in Europe. This bridge weighed 5,220 tons. Both bridges were designed by Professor Streletsky. They were made of riveted steel, and had two tiers: the upper tier for rail traffic and the lower tier for road traffic and pedestrians. They were assembled by a combination of Czechoslovakian and Soviet workers under the direction of a Soviet engineer called Konstantinov. The arches were made from steel made by the Vitkovetskom steel plant in Czechoslovakia, other steelwork was made at the Dnipropetrovsk Metallurgical Plant. The new bridges opened on 6 November 1931. The Kichkas Bridge was demolished afterwards.
Eastern Front (World War II)
German occupation
The war (World War II) between the USSR and Germany began on 22 June 1941. In the USSR this war was called the Great Patriotic War, 1941�1945.
After the outbreak of the war the Soviet government started evacuating industrial equipment from the city to Siberia before the Germans reached the city. The NKVD shot political prisoners in the city. On 18 August 1941, elements of the German 1st Panzergruppe
