In 1784 Kaunas townspeople applied to the Seimas (parliament) for the first time asking for permission to build a bridge over the River Nemunas. The pontoon bridge was constructed in the summer of 1794, but fell down in the winter of the same year. It is known that the bridge over the River Nemunas was constructed by 1812, and Napoleon, Emperor of France, ordered the building of a new bridge on poles, which was burned down when the Grande Armée retreated. In 1814 the bridge over the Nemunas was constructed by the Tsarist administration, and it was used by the Russian Army in their march to fight Napoleon when crossing the River Nemunas. Kaunas townspeople were entrusted to administer and maintain the bridge, though later the new owner of Freda polwark, Józef Godlewski (Juozapas Godlevskis), disputed the bridge’s ownership. The bridge over the Nemunas was quite brittle because of its wooden construction and constantly damage by floods. During certain time periods the bridge divided two countries (Russian Empire and Prussia, and later the Polish Kingdom) and two calendars (the calendar of Western Europe and that of the Russian Empire), thus the common joke prevailed that this was the longest bridge ever.
Liudas Glemža