built across the Fontanka, in 1715 Emperor Peter I issued a decree: "Over the Big Neva on the Fountain River, there is a prospect to create a bridge." By May 1716, the work was completed, and a wooden girder bridge on pile supports blocked both the channel itself and the swampy floodplain. In 1726 a guardhouse was erected and the city border was moved here. 1725–1762. Nevsky Prospect in the Era of Palace coups The great prospect became the main road: it was along it, as stated in the Senate decree of 1726, "there is always both arrival and departure of foreign and Russian subjects from everywhere to St. Petersburg." The government invested money in the improvement and cleanliness of the highway. In the 1720s, the initial section of the road running along Admiralty Meadow was landscaped: four rows of birches were planted on the sides, which were regularly trimmed, the road was paved with stones. Since 1723, the avenue was the first in Russia to receive street lighting: oil lanterns were installed, later benches for passers-by appeared under them. Translation in English of the quote: Description of this alley, made in 1721 by a chamber junker in the duke's retinue Karl-Friedrich of Holstein-Gottorp: By the end of the first quarter of the 18th century, the buildings of the Great Perspective were few. In the beginning there were several small houses, on the right side at the corner of the Moika there was a Mytny Dvor, behind the Moika there were salt barns. On the site of the modern Gostiny Dvor, a birch grove was green, then there were “perevedenskie settlements” consisting of wooden houses. The vast territory on the left side of the road from Moika to Fontanka was owned by Empress Catherine I, was low, swampy and undeveloped. The suburb of St Petersburg began behind the Fontanka. On the right side were the houses of the Anichkov settlement, where the soldiers of the Admiralty Workers' Battalion lived under the command of Lieutenant Colonel M. O. Anichkov. This battalion in 1715 built a wooden bridge across the Fontanka, called Anichkov Bridge. Behind this narrow access bridge, from 1726, there was a wooden guard house, documents were checked and the barrier was raised. A canal was laid along the route of the current Ligovsky Prospekt, which supplied water to the Summer Garden fountains. Further, the territory was covered with forest