The Unique Järuska Bridge

Im not a massive fan of bridges. But if it has a title of being an attraction, then I still want to check it out so I can be more familiar with my home country. Have to be honest, that it looks pretty cool.
Back in August, I was driving in Eastern Estonia to meet up with my dad who also drove there for a weekend getaway. Since I dont visit Eastern part of the country too often, I wanted to see some places I still haven't so far. From the maps, I noticed this bridge that was labeled as an attraction. It wasn't too far off from my route so I decided to make a stop.

The bridge is named Järuska bridge and is located in Eastern Estonia, not far from the lake Peipus in a village of Lemmaku.

The bridge is the first roofed wooden bridge in Estonia apparently. It's 26.4 meters long, 4.7 meters wide and 6.7 meters high. Im not going to describe all the characteristics of this bridge because I think you are not very interested in that. The bridge should withstand a 35 m/s wind, it is said. Highly unlikely that this location experiences stronger wind than this.

The bridge kinda looks like a barn isn't it? It was made to look this way on purpose. Apparently to mimic some old buildings of the village it leads to. The bridge was completed in 2013 and as far as I know, there is no other roofed bridges in Estonia. I might be mistaken though.

It's really a very small village there you see in the image below. I didn't see any people or traffic going over this bridge while I was there. Everything was as quiet as can possibly be. I just spent a bit of time there. Watched the water flow, listened to quietness and walked over the bridge to the other side.

Surprise surprise, the other side does not look different. I did get different angles looking at the bridge, so that was good. After all, this is what a bridge is meant for, traveling over it. I couldn't possibly leave without doing so if I was already there. Here are some more opposite side views of this one.

A view from the inside. All the criss cross walls are not there only for the looks. Everything acts as a support for this bridge since there are no pillars under the bridge itself. On the right hand side, on the wall you can notice some photos. These were about the building and history of bridges in this area.

I think I spent there for about 10 or 15 minutes. It was enought to see everything there is to see. Eventhough I'm generally not extremely interested in bridges and their design, It was still interesting to see and learn about it. After all it's something unique.

I did visit some more places and went to a bog where I ran from an approaching thunderstorm. Will write about it soon enough. As always, stay tuned!

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