The chain bridge is one of the most well known landmarks of Budapest.
Its decorations made of cast iron, and its construction,
radiating calm dignity and balance,
raise it among the most beautiful industrial monuments in Europe.

The bridge was designed by the English engineer William Tierney Clark in 1839,
after Count István Széchenyi's initiative in the same year,
with construction supervised locally by Scottish engineer Adam Clark (no relation).
It is a larger scale version of William Tierney Clark's earlier Marlow Bridge,
across the River Thames in Marlow, England.

The bridge was opened in 1849, and thus became the first permanent bridge in Budapest.
At the time, its centre span of 202 m was one of the largest in the world.
The pairs of lions at each of the abutments were added in 1852.
The bridge was given its current name in 1898.

The bridge's steel structure was totally updated and strengthened in 1914.
Of course, as the whole country had to be rebuilt after World War II, that was completed in 1949.

Among the anecdotes relating to the bridge,
the most popular is that the lions were sculpted without tongues
and the sculptor was mocked so much that he jumped into the Danube in shame.

The lions do have tongues (although they are not visible from below,
which is the usual point of view,
as the lions are lying on a stone block some three meters high).