“Like a mighty bow, the bridge arches from one bank of the river to the other, leaving beneath it free and unobstructed passage for boats and all manner of smaller watercraft, as well as for the ice in spring.”
Pärnu Päevaleht newspaper, 8 April 1932
The place name Lodja comes from the Estonian word for a raft that was pulled by a rope from the shore. It was used to transport travellers and horse-drawn carriages across the river for a fee. The raft crossing at the mouth of the Reiu River was located a few dozen metres downstream from today’s arch bridge. Although a fairly simple means of transport, the raft could still be quite inconvenient for travellers, especially in autumn before the rivers froze or during the spring floods, when the river could be impassable for days at a time.
It is thought that at the end of the 19th century, the raft was replaced during the summer months with a floating bridge, also called a leather bridge, to provide a more permanent crossing. The bridge’s buoyancy and load-bearing capacity were ensured using thick base logs, onto which a roadway of heavy planks was nailed. In the middle of the bridge was a removable section that allowed boats and log rafts to pass. As with the raft, a fee was charged for crossing the leather bridge. This was collected by a toll keeper, who rented the bridge from Sindi Manor.
Compared to the earlier raft, the leather bridge allowed for faster crossings, but it was troublesome to install and dismantle each year, as well as to open the movable section on a daily basis for boats and log rafts to pass through. Proposals to build a more permanent bridge were nevertheless unsuccessful, partly due to suspected opposition from the owner of Sindi Manor, the land councillor Staelvon Holstein, who was trying to preserve the rental income from both the raft and the riverside tavern under his control.
In 1930, the county government’s road department took over management of the old leather bridge and stopped charging for crossings. From then on, serious steps were taken toward establishing a permanent bridge.
This was eventually designed by Nikolai Gustav Leyden, who had studied engineering in St Petersburg and worked as a roads and bridges engineer for Pärnu County government since 1924. On 3 August 1932, the county government handed over all the construction materials for the Sindi-Lodja bridge to the builder Mihkel Kase, and construction work began that same day. At times, construction was carried out in up to three shifts, and some of the concrete casting work was carried out, as an exception, during winter.
The 65-metre long, 5-metre wide reinforced concrete arch bridge was completed as early as the autumn of the following year and opened on 5 November 1933. It was regarded as the most beautiful bridge in Estonia.
The old leather bridge was sold at auction by the county government for 100 kroons (6 euros). It was floated down the river to Pärnu, where it was dismantled for building materials.
The Sindi-Lodja bridge was destroyed during World War II in the course of frontline activity – retreating German army units blew it up shortly before noon on 23 September 1944. For years after, traffic was enabled by a temporary wooden bridge at the mouth of the river, until in 1955 a concrete bridge was erected by the Leningrad-based Soyuzdorproyekt on the foundations of the old arches of the bridge, in a similar shape to the original, but now widened to 7 metres.
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