4-Way Bridges Around The World

Three-way bridges, also known as Tri-bridges, Tridges, T-bridges, or Y-bridges, are uncommon structures that have three separate spans meeting at a point over water. (Tri-Bridges Around the World).

Four-way bridges having four distinct spans that intersect at a junction over water, creating a cross-shaped or plus-shaped bridge, are even rarer.

This post showcases the existing four-way bridges but excludes overbridges and flyovers over land or interchanges that do not have physical connections between the spans and whose spans pass over each other in 3-dimensional space.

Till date only four examples of 4-way bridges have been found and these are:

Vehicular Bridge

1. Pont Sans Pareil, Ardres, France.

Footbridges

1. Cross (Krestovy) Bridge, Pushkin, St. Petersburg, Russia.
2. Ponte dei Tre Ponti (Bridge of Three Bridges), Venice, Italy.
3. 4-Way Onagigawa Clover Bridge, Koto City, Tokyo, Japan.

---

Pont Sans Pareil, Ardres, France

A unique and world's only 4-way vehicular bridge over water. No wonder it is called Pont Sans Pareil - matchless or unparalleled bridge.

This 4-way road bridge is at the junction of two municipalities, Ardres and Les Attacks, France, over the intersection of the Calais Canal with the Marck Canal.

A 4-way vaulted masonry arch bridge was originally built here as early as 1750–1752. It was demolished by the Germans in 1944, and the present pre-stressed concrete girder bridge was built in 1968.

The old bridge.

Image from Wiki Pas-De-Calais is by J. Cerf, photographer editor of Ardres

Present bridge.

Image from Wikimedia Commons is by Хрюша

Google Maps

Source of information:

• structurae.net (Old bridge)
• structurae.net (New bridge)
• laphotoduxix.canalblog.com

Cross (Krestovy) Bridge, Pushkin, St. Petersburg, Russia

This cute little 4-way bridge in Alexander Park, Tsarskoye Selo (Tsar's Village), now part of Pushkin, St. Petersburg, Russia, is known as the Cross Bridge (Russian: Крестовый мост, Krestovy most). The bridge, which from the top looks like a cross, was built in 1779 on the orders of Empress Catherine II, who wanted to build at Tsarskoye Selo "... a Chinese summer-house on arches with four risers."

The bridge spans a T-junction of the Krestovy Canal, and although it is small in size, it has a magnificent look and shape. A beautiful pavilion over the water, supported by four strong curving arched bridges, each having 23 steps of granite. The keystone, at the junction of the bridges, is in the shape of a large pendant hanging over the water. The key stone also provides the base for the beautiful octagonal-shaped pavilion with four ogee-arched doors and four ogee-arched windows. The roof is a typical "Chinese" roof painted with a fish scale pattern, in tune with the nearby "Chinese village".

A 19th-century watercolour from Wikimedia Commons

Image from Google Maps is by Slava Svetlov

Image from Google Maps is Андрей Абрамов

Google Street View

Ponte dei Tre Ponti (Bridge of Three Bridges), Venice, Italy

A four-way footbridge over the intersection of three canals near L’isola di Jacopo. Initially, there were three normal parallel bridges, but in the 1930s, the centre of the bridge in the middle was connected to the bridges on its left and right, thus forming a 4-way bridge. This combination of the three bridges has given it the name Ponte dei Tre Ponti (Bridge of Three Bridges).

Image from Flickr is by Bob. (Special thanks to Bob for uploading this picture on Flickr so that it can be used here.)

Image Source: Google Maps

Source of information: tripadvisor.com

4-Way Onagigawa Clover Bridge, Koto City, Tokyo, Japan

A 4-way footbridge over the intersection of Onagi River with Yokojikken River.

Image from Google Maps is by shu123ok

Google Street View

---

Credits: Chriusha and Krenek, members of the Google Earth Community Forums, for bringing the Pont Sans Pareil, Ardres, and Cross (Krestovy) Bridge, respectively, to my knowledge.