After the Chirpan earthquake, with the help of hundreds of donors from all over the world, a special organization aimed at assisting and restoring the damage allocated money for the construction of a new bridge in Plovdiv.
The Directorate announced a national competition, won by architect Kamen Velkov, who graduated in Germany. The Bulgarian Joint-Stock Company "Cyclops" was chosen as the contractor for the project. The construction of the bridge began on November 23, 1930.
The purpose of its construction was to take over the traffic from the Central Station to the Filipovo Station, and therefore it was decided to build it along Tsar Osvoboditel Boulevard (today "Ruski"). The bridge was completed in less than a year – on May 31, 1931. It is 165 m long, with 5 arches of 30 m each. The roadways are 6.5 m wide, and there are sidewalks on both sides, 2.5 m wide. During the construction of the bridge, the river flooded five times and destroyed the construction scaffolding and interrupted the work. The construction of the bridge cost 19 million leva. In the summer of 1937, a retaining wall was erected along the bank of the Maritsa.
The artist Tsanko Lavrenov in the graphic "The New Bridge on the Maritsa" captured a view of the bridge, seen from the "Gerdjika". The bridge is an integral part of many postcards with views of Plovdiv at that time.
It was not until 1949 that its builders, Eng. Iliya Draganov, Eng. Parvan Gerdzhikov and Arch. Ivan Naydenov, were awarded. In 1956, the first trolleybus passed over the bridge. In 1966, an overpass was built at the bridge on Russki Boulevard.
In 2007, construction began on a second bridge structure, parallel to the Gerdzhika Bridge. The new bridge has a roadway width of 10 m, a pedestrian sidewalk of 3.5 m with a one-meter auxiliary sidewalk on the side of the old bridge. There is no connection between the two bridges, they are separated by a one-meter clear opening. In the summer of 2008, the structure was put into operation. Traffic on each of the bridges is one-way.
Initially, the bridge was called the "Tsar's Bridge", but the name "New Bridge" was adopted to distinguish it from the Old Bridge. In 1934, Stoyu Gerdzhikov built a pub "Gerdzhika" on the north side of the bridge. Gradually, Plovdiv residents began to call the bridge "Gerdzhika's Bridge", after the name of the pub, known for its spicy grill and fine wines. The name "New Bridge" was abandoned after 1960, when the next bridge over the Maritsa River was built - the Fair Bridge.
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