Скачать или смотреть The Bridge at Andau - still a distance to safety

August 19, 2010. The Bridge at Andau, made famous by the James Michener book about the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. The original bridge is gone, taken down by the Russians after the escape attempts to Austria by so many Hungarians in 1956. This is a memorial reconstruction of the bridge. The original footbridge was not a covered bridge. This is not the same location as the border road between Andau and Janossomorja-- it is about 5 miles south of Andau, where the Austria-Hungary border makes a sharp turn from north-south to east-west. It is at this location where the escape attempts occurred as the actual road between Andau and Janossomorja was only a bike path until recent years, and the border at that point was heavily guarded. The footbridge here was over a drainage ditch in a very swampy area that was extremely difficult to cross, but because of that, was also less-heavily guarded by the Russians. As explained in the Michener book, once the Hungarian refugees were across the bridge, they were still not safe-- there was a swampy no-man's land to cross to get to the border. You can see that distance in this video-- the border is marked by the fence, topped by barbed wire, a distance from the end of the bridge. So there was still danger to get to Austria once they were across the bridge.