Siimu Bridge: When the Road Floated

The men in this photograph are standing beside a road that floats. Look at the low timber deck, almost level with the river, and the rough slope leading down to it. There are no great arches overhead. Pärnu Museum dates the picture to around 1900 and identifies the far end as the side towards Uus-Pärnu. The man with the walking stick has stopped for the camera; behind him, an ordinary crossing looks like a gathering place.

Here, a road had to meet a moving river. A floating bridge rests on the water, so when the water rises or falls, its deck follows. That changes the slope between bridge and bank. Look again at the approach in the photograph: this awkward meeting of land and water was part of the journey. Today's level walkway makes it easy to forget that crossing a river once meant adapting to it.