The coachmen of Maribor were much relieved when in 1913 the Austrians inaugurated what is known as the Old Bridge over the Drava, which replaced the timber structure that had been a serious bottleneck along the busy road from Vienna to Trieste. The Lent and Tabor neighborhoods were finally linked to each other up high, making the viaduct a symbol of the city, but the riverbanks remained disconnected until the recent completion of a lower footbridge. Adopting the same arrangement in spans as the double-jointed arches, two sheafs of metal tubes rise from the water to form the supports of a deck lined with larchwood, a silent tribute to the toil of rafters who once upon a time transported people and goods across the river, to and fro. Perfectly calculated to be as slender and transparent as possible, the bridge stresses its connective mission through a sophisticated version of a child’s tin-can or plastic-cup telephone: a stretched steel cable and two containers integrated into the ends of the handrail, which make the crossing a playful experience...[+]