Pitkäsilta Bridge/ Kaisaniemi Bay

Pitkäsilta (Long Bridge) joins Kaisaniemi and Siltasaari. To the west are the sea, Kaisaniemi Park and the University of Helsinki Botanical Gardens and to the east the district called Kruununhaka.

Until the end of the 19th century Siltasaari (Bridge Island) was a real island linked with the mainland by two wooden bridges. One of these is now Pitkäsilta, which has a history stretching back 350 years. The present three-arch granite bridge dates from 1912 and bears the marks of war.

Pitkäsilta at one time acted as a demarcation line between the middle- and working-class city districts: from the 1870s onwards a new workers' community called Kallio began to take shape at the northern end of the bridge. The biggest industrial estate in Finland then emerged after the opening of the Sörnäinen docks. The areas north of the bridge were annexed to Helsinki in 1901.