Széchenyi Chain Bridge

Iron chain suspension bridge, opened November 20, 1849. Designed by the English engineer William Tierney Clark, with the Scottish engineer Adam Clark, no relation, supervising the work across the Danube in Budapest. This was the first permanent bridge between Buda and Pest, and it still reads as the city's front door: two vaulted stone towers carrying iron chains over a 202-meter span, with stone lions guarding each end. Blown up at the end of World War II, it was rebuilt and reopened exactly a century after its first opening, and a renovation finished in 2023 closed it to private cars, so the sidewalks on both sides are calmer than they were. Cross on foot, with Castle Hill rising at the Buda end and the Parliament along the Pest bank.