Danube River
The Danube river has been the emblematic for Bulgaria and many other countries. In Bulgaria, the Danube reaches its endpoint, and flows into the Black Sea.
Its inception, is of the River water from Baar plateau, which is located in the Black Forest in Germany. Danube is the second longest river in Europe after the Volga River. One unique feature of the Danube distinguishes it from all other watercourses on the Old Continent – the River is the only river that flows in the direction from west to east.
Having come from within Germany, the Danube passes through the countries Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine, and finally flows into the Black Sea.
There are 30 of 300 rivers which rush into the water flow of the Danube . The important of these are the Drava, Yin, Morava, Prut, Sava and Tisa.
The Danube is an important transportation, commercial and economic importance and is categorized as a trans-European transport corridor № 7 of the European Union. Large number of important European cities are built along the second longest river in Europe - Ulm, Ingolstadt, Regensburg in Germany, Linz, Krems, Vienna in Austria, Bratislava in Slovakia, {Budapest] in Hungary, Vukovar in Croatia, Novi Sad and Belgrade in Serbia, Braila, Turnu Severin, Galati, Tulcea in Romania. Bulgarian towns which lie along the river are Vidin, Lom, Kozloduy, Nikopol, Svishtov, Rousse and Silistra Tutrakan.
Important for transport over the Danube between Romania and Bulgaria is the Danube bridge. It was built between the towns of Rousse and Giurgiu, it was officially opened for service on June 20th, 1954. At that time, the River Bridge was the largest combined bridge and railway line for such traffic across Europe.
The river bridge took two and a half years to built from Bulgaria and Romania in cooperation with the then USSR. The primary designer of the bridge is architect, Georgi Ovcharov. The layout, including the gates at the Bulgarian and Romanian coast and its eagle's head are of the work from Ukrainian sculptor, Mikhaylo Parashchuk.
