Eiffel Railway Bridge

On the narrow-gauge railway journey up from Borjomi to Bakuriani, the train crosses a slender iron bridge over the Tsemistskali River gorge that was designed by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel and installed in 1902. The bridge is an unexpected piece of engineering history in a remote Georgian valley.

The slow, winding train ride itself — a 37-kilometre journey through spruce forest — is one of the best reasons to visit the region. Known affectionately as the kukushka (cuckoo), the narrow-gauge line operates most days and takes around two hours. You can see the bridge from the train and also from a viewpoint accessible by footpath from the Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park hiking trails nearby.

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A story
When the narrow-gauge railway from Borjomi was being engineered in the early 1900s, Mikhail Romanov commissioned Alexandre Gustave Eiffel — fresh from completing the Eiffel Tower — to design a bridge over the Tsemistskali River. The prefabricated ironwork was shipped to the Caucasus and assembled in 1902, and the bridge still carries trains today.