"The Emperor’s finger" or why the railway between Moscow and Petersburg made a detour

The recollections of sovereign Nikolai the first describe him as a person who sought to control everything in the Russian Empire. Even the construction of railways. According to legend, when planning the first major railway from Moscow to St. Petersburg, the emperor drew a straight line on the map using a ruler.

But this is bad luck: at some point, the pencil came across an imperial finger and involuntarily circled it. The sovereign, not noticing such a mistake, gave the card to officials. Say, the only way the railway should go. Those, fearing to argue, kept the pencil bend and laid the rails exactly as it was painted by Nikolai Pavlovich.

Nicholas I

In the twentieth century, this joke has its own variations. Only they were connected with Stalin and the Trans-Siberian Railway. So is it true or fiction? It's time to figure it out.

The famous hook starts from the village of Verebye in the Novgorod region. At first they built a direct road, but the railroad workers faced an unexpected problem - an impressive elevation drop. Here they were huge: the Mstinsky bridge station was 79 meters above sea level, and the next Torbino station was already at a mark of 192 meters. Between them is a very steep 21-kilometer hill, during which it was difficult to climb and descend from it.

Nicholas approves the construction of the bridge

During the descent, the brake pads simply burned out due to constant braking; it was difficult for the trains to stop when moving to St. Petersburg and approaching the Mstinsky bridge down the slope. Trains from St. Petersburg to Moscow, on the other hand, did not have enough power to climb the hill, so the cars had to be disconnected and raised in parts.

The old bridge. 19th century photo

In February 1852, three months after the launch of the railway, an accident occurred. The hill was so steep that unattended wagons could slide down. Since they were raised in parts, it was necessary to disconnect the first batch, leave it on the hill until the driver returned for the next batch of wagons. Once an irreparable happened. While the engine was returning for the second group of cars, the first one rolled back, crashing into the train.

However, nothing was done to correct the ascent until 1869, when the bridge burned down. After this, the audit showed that the railway in this place is too dangerous and needs to be reconstructed.

It was necessary to lay a detour, which increased the length of the railway by five kilometers. The old bridge over the Verebya river was demolished, instead of it, a railway dam was built with a river flowing inside it through a pipe.

Dam and river in a pipe

Added two stations. The construction was completed in 1881, and this is how the loop appeared, resembling the finger of Nicholas the First. And it doesn’t matter that he passed away 26 years before.

Currently, this feature is no longer found on the railway map between Moscow and St. Petersburg. In 2000, the Ministry of Railways straightened the railway line. High-speed trains needed a straight road for safety and speed.