One of the most famous bridges, not only in Petersburg but also in Russia, is the Anichkov bridge. "Behind the great Neva Fountain on the river at perspective to make the bridge" - with these words, Peter's decree began in 1715 his story. The original wooden bridge was built by soldiers of the engineer-Colonel M. About. Anichkov, after whom the bridge got its name. Shortly after the discovery by him of the movement of the bridge has become important for the life and development of the young city, as he connected the Admiralty to the Alexander Nevsky monastery. To the 80-th years of the eighteenth century the width and reliability of the wooden bridge did not meet the city's needs and it was replaced by a three-span stone bridge with adjustable wooden middle part, chains and towers with hoists, exactly the same as another six bridges built across the Fontanka, when the riverbanks began to dress in granite. The city eventually grew, expanded Nevsky prospect, so by the mid-nineteenth century, again there is a need for the reconstruction of the bridge.

In 1841 the old bridge was demolished and in seven months the new one was built according to the project engineers, bridge builders A. D. Gotman and I. F. Bottou. The bridge was still a three-span, with sloping ceiling made of brick, were faced with granite piers and spans of the bridge. It was decorated with cast-iron railings on the drawings Berlin architect Karl Schinkel in pairs with alternating sculptures of sea horses and mermaids. These railings were a copy of those that have already been set in Berlin at the Palace bridge.

But the main decoration of the bridge, that made him world-famous steel sculpture compositions of Pyotr Karlovich Klodt "the taming of the horse person". The first two sculptures, cast in bronze, "the Young man taking the horse by the bridle and the Horse with reaching boys" - were installed on the West side of the bridge in 1841. The sculptures of the Eastern shore were the copies of the West, but were temporarily plaster, painted bronze. Prepared to replace them, just cast the bronze horses straight from the casting yard to Emperor Nicholas I presented the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm IV. They still adorn the Berlin Kleist-Park. In 1844 the Eastern plaster sculptures were replaced with bronze, but again not for long, just two years. This time they were given to the king of the two Sicilies for the hospitality that was extended to the Russian Empress during her travels in Italy. In 1846 copies of the sculptures were in Naples. Subsequently, copies klodtovskimi horses appeared in Strelna, Peterhof, in Kuzminki Moscow estate of Prince Golitsyn. But still, they are one of the symbols of St. Petersburg.