Djurgårdsbron

This guide to Djurgårdsbron in Stockholm follows three centuries of a single job: keeping a bridge crossable, from a toll-collecting surveyor appointed in 1730 to the two hundred soldiers who marched across a brand-new iron span in 1849 to test it. It traces the wood that rotted, the iron that replaced it, and the World's Fair deadline that shaped what stands here today. Look up at the four granite-columned figures guarding the crossing as you cross.