18. Read the text. Speak about the importance of the Amur Bridge for the Far East. Amur Bridge

It is an automobile and Railway Bridge built in 1999 near the city of Khabarovsk, Russia. Until that time an older bridge built in 1916 existed near it.

Measuring some 2,590 meters (about 8,500 feet) in length, the structure remained the longest bridge in Imperial Russia, Soviet Union and Asia for decades.

The bridge was scheduled to be constructed at cost of 13,500,000 Russian rubles to designs by the eminent bridge builder Lavr Proskuryakov in merely 26 months.

However, a year after construction work began on July 30, 1913, the First World War broke out. Since the bridge spans were manufactured in Warsaw, they had to be brought to Khabarovsk by sea all the way around Eurasia. In the fall of 1914, a merchant ship carrying the last two spans was sunk in the Indian Ocean by the German cruiser Emden delaying the completion of the bridge by more than a year.

The bridge was finally completed for an official opening on October 5, 1916. It was named Alekseyevsky after Tsesarevich Alexey.

Five years later, during the Russian Civil War, two of the eighteen spans were blown up by the retreating Red Army. The bridge was repaired in 1925 and functioned for many years.

In 1999 a new bridge was built right next to the old one, carrying automobile and rail traffic on two levels. The original spans of the old bridge were subsequently dismantled, though its supports remain.

The reconstructed Khabarovsk Bridge is depicted on the 5,000 Russian ruble banknote as the Amur River and the Amur Bridge are the real symbols of the Far East. Not long ago this Bridge took the third position among the miracles of Khabarovsk Territory.

19.On your own. Use the Internet and other sources to find some information about the history of construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Lesson 21. Development of Basic Industries in the Far East in the 19^th –20^th Centuries