Until the middle of the 19th century, the only connection between Pest and Buda was a boat bridge, which was dismantled in winter. As the city developed, this situation became increasingly untenable. The construction of the permanent Danube Bridge was the largest engineering project in Hungary at the time.
The driving force behind the enterprise was Count István Széchenyi, who played a key role in the selection of the experts, as well as in the development of the legal framework and the provision of financing.
The construction of large suspension bridges was made possible by the development of iron production from the early 19th century. The 210-metre-long chain bridge across the Thames at Hammersmith designed by William Tierney Clark opened in 1827, and the 72-metre-long Marlow Bridge in 1832. Széchenyi, after consulting the designer, also opted for a suspension bridge at Pest-Buda. The plans for the Chain Bridge were drawn up in William Tierney Clark’s office in England, and the construction was supervised by his namesake, Adam Clark. The bridge took 10 years to build, and between 1,000 and 1,200 people were employed to produce the building materials. The granite for the piers was supplied from Mauthausen in Austria and most of the iron parts from England, but there were also Hungarian foundries among the suppliers.
Construction of the Chain Bridge began in 1839. The ceremonial laying of the foundation stone took place on 24 August 1842, in the presence of members of the royal family, the political elite and the construction managers. The Chain Bridge was opened on 20 November 1849. Nursed in a sanatorium, Széchenyi did not see the major work of his life, which has borne his name since 1915, completed. The 380-metre-long bridge was one of the most magnificent structures of its time in Europe, both technically and aesthetically. Blown up and rebuilt at the end of the Second World War, it remains a visual symbol of Budapest to this day.
The Chain Bridge was built with private funds. The joint-stock company that built it was organised by the Viennese banker Baron Georg Sina, whose main investors were the Rothschilds of Vienna and Samuel Wodianer of Pest, but Hungarian merchants and landowners also bought shares. Széchenyi credited the company to investors by buying a substantial block of shares.
In the Hungary of the time, the nobility did not have to pay for the use of bridges and roads. Széchenyi succeeded in having this privilege suspended by law in the case of the Chain Bridge, which thus became a symbol of equal tax burden. The costs of building the bridge were recovered in twenty years, and the state redeemed the Chain Bridge from the private company in 1870.