History
The aqueduct was commissioned by Catherine II of Russia to engineer Friedrich Wilhelm Bauer. Catherine authorized 1.1 million rouble expenditure and 400 soldiers. Builders used second-hand stone left by demolition of Bely Gorod fortifications. Construction, frequently interrupted, dragged for 25 years, as the soldier engineers were summoned to the war with Turkey (1787-1792) and various other jobs. In the process, both Catherine and Bauer died. Colonel Ivan Gerard lead the project after Bauer's death in 1783. Catherine's son, Paul I, had to issue 400,000 roubles financing; Alexander I added 200,000 roubles. Finally, the aqueduct was completed at an unprecedented cost of 2 million roubles, thus the name Millionny Bridge.
Read more about this topic: Rostokino Aqueduct
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of our era is the nauseating and repulsive history of the crucifixion of the procreative body for the glorification of the spirit.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“The history of philosophy is to a great extent that of a certain clash of human temperaments.”
—William James (1842–1910)
“History, as an entirety, could only exist in the eyes of an observer outside it and outside the world. History only exists, in the final analysis, for God.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)