Budapest Chain Bridge Poster

View from the Tunnel. Lanchid (Chain bridge) and the Gresham Palace. Chain Bridge (official name: Széchenyi Lánchíd or Széchenyi Chain Bridge), Budapest, Hungary The Chain bridge is first permanent modern bridge over the Danube in Budapest. One of its ends is located in Pest at Roosevelt Sq, there is the Gresham Palace, the main building of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Interior. The other end is in Buda, at Clark Adam Square by the Castle Hill. The suspension bridge was opened in 1849 but in was already in use from 1848. Its construction was initiated by Count Istvan Szechenyi and it was designed by the British engineer William Tierney Clark. The construction was supervised by a Scottish engineer, by Adam Clark. Two pairs of lions were added to the bridge in 1855. (According to the popular belief the lions have no tongues and the sculptor committed suicide because of this error. The lions do have a tongue, but they are invisible from the ground. One of the lions of the Buda side has some missing teeth, the tongue there is still visible. Don't climb up to look into the mouth of the lion! Many people have fallen trying it!) During WW2 the Nazi troops destroyed the bridge which was reconstructed after the war.