2025 – Technical Monuments – The Bratislava Propeller Ferry

At Bratislava the River Danube creates a natural barrier which has been overcome in various ways since ancient times. The medieval fords were later replaced by bridges and ferry crossings. In 1891 when the old pontoon bridge, dating from 1825, was replaced by the first steel bridge in Bratislava, the Franz Joseph I Bridge, an entrepreneur, Heinrich Hrnes, asked the city leaders for permission to operate a steam ferry crossing. In 1893, he opened a line between, what is today, udovt tr Square and Janko Kr Park, operating two steamboats, FRIGYES and IZABELLA. As a result of a great degree of public interest they were later joined by a third, larger-capacity boat, the POZSONY. The name Propeller Enterprise Propeller Unternehmung Csavargzs Vllalat was coined to refer to the propeller-driven ships that provided transport from riverbank to riverbank. From 1931, the propeller ferries were operated by the municipal waterworks. Later, after their operation was further interrupted by the annexation of Petralka by Nazi Germany during World War II, they were operated by the municipal transport company and then by Czechoslovak Danube Cruise (eskoslovensk plavba dunajsk) from 1952. Although during this period the operation of the ferry was mainly provided by a side-wheel steamer, the DUNAJ (later DEVN), rather than a propeller steamer, the popular name the Propeller