The Historical Charles Bridge in Prague, Czech Republic

I can compare Charles Bridge in Prague, Czech Republic to the famous bridge in Wuerzburg, Germany wherein you can see religious statues on the side of it. It was interesting how they made it at the time it was constructed. As we went walking on the bridge, you can see people selling memorabilias of Prague and people who are also selling different paintings of the city.

This photo was taken in one of the towers of Charles Bridge..there were a lot of people here during our visit..

Charles Bridge-20th century to present

In the beginning of the 20th century, Charles Bridge saw a steep rise of heavy traffic. The 15 May 1905 was the last day of the horse-line on the bridge, as it was replaced with an electric tram until 1908 and with buses afterward. At the end of World War II, a barricade was built in the Old Town bridge tower gateway. A capital repair of the bridge took place between 1965 and 1978, based on a collaboration among various scientific and cultural institutes. The stability of the pillars was reassured, all broken stone blocks were replaced, the asphalt top was removed and all traffic has been excluded from the Charles Bridge since then, making it accessible by pedestrians only. The repair cost 50 million crowns.

During the 1990s, some people started criticizing the previous reconstruction of the bridge and proposing a new one. As of the beginning of the new millennium, most of the experts appeared to agree that the previous reconstruction had not been flawless but disputed the need for further interference with the bridge. However, after the disastrous floods of 2002 (which itself caused only minor harm to the bridge), it was decided that repair and stabilization of the two pillars (number 8 and 9) on the Malá Strana side of the Bridge would happen. These are the only river pillars that have not been repaired after the 1890 floods. The floods intensified the voices of the supporters of an overall bridge reconstruction and, as of 2005, the current repair of the pillars is considered as the first phase of the reconstruction, which will concentrate especially on building a new hydroisolation system protecting the bridge. The whole reconstruction will be done gradually without needing to close the bridge and is scheduled for the period 2007–2010. source: wikipedia