Water transport used to be very popular in St. Petersburg: for example, in 1912 the boats running down the Neva and the Fontanka rivers carried a total of 5,6 mln people, which was twice the population of the city. Naturally, transportation by the water was not possible in the winter time because all rivers and canals freeze. But the ice used to be so thick that a special tram line was laid on the ice of the Neva River

The Neva River

The Neva river is the biggest river in St Petersburg. It is 74km long with over 30km within the city limits. The river issues from Lake Ladoga, the biggest lake in Europe, and flows west-trend into the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea.

The widest part of the Neva is at the gate of the commercial port (1250m); the narrowest part (340m) is between the Palace and the Annunciation Bridges; the deepest part is 24m (near the Liteiny/Foundry Bridge); the most shallow part is less than 6 m. St. Petersburg is situated on the delta of the Neva, several branches take off the main flow of the river and form several islands. The biggest islands of the delta are Vasilievsky (1090 hectares), Petrogradsky (570 hectares) and Krestovsky (420 hectares).

Fontanka River

The Fontanka is 6,7km long, 35-70m wide and 2,6-3, 5m deep. The river was the city’s boundary till the middle of the 18th century. The left bank was a forest, which was notorious for the robbers who mugged passers-by and travelers, so the owners of the country houses on the left bank were ordered to cut down the forest around their estates to keep the robbers from hiding there. The river’s embankments were faced with granite at the time of Catherine the Great. In 1887 the first regular river steamboats started to run down the Fontanka River.

Moika River

The Moika River is 4,67km long, 20 to 40m wide and 2,3 to 3,2m deep). The name of the river Moika has at least two meanings: Moika in Russian means washing: in the old times the women, who lived in the area close to the river, used to do their washing in the river. However, historians say that the word Moika originates from the Finnish word Muja, which means dirty.

The Moika flows through the old part of the city. The earliest houses built on the river banks were small wooden dwellings of naval officers and shipbuilding workers. By the middle of the 19th century the embankments of the Moika River became one of the most prestigious parts of the capital city. St. Petersburg aristocracy, distinguished people of the time and high ranking merchants were building their palaces and mansions along the river.