This huge six lane flyover spans Kaliningrad’s Moskovsky Prospect. As you can see, it’s aimed squarely at the third floor of an old Prussian house, but stops a few metres short.

Like their counterparts in Venice, local residents give a little sigh when they look out of their bedroom windows. It’s Kaliningrad’s ‘Bridge Too Far’ - too far from any roads at either end to be of any practical use, just a concrete relic of some grand plan long forgotten. By the 1970’s, Moscow had lost interest in Kaliningrad and the town was all but derelicted until the anniversary of 2005.

There are many structures like this, suddenly amputated by Soviet budget contraints. I’ve since learned that this is the real reason why the ‘Monster’, The House of Soviets, was never finished.

Legend and even Wikipedia says of Dom Sovietov, which was built on the site of the old Konigsberg Castle: Structural problems related to the castle’s subterranean levels halted its progress and construction was stopped indefinitely in the 1980s.

Not so, says Vladimir Toropov, the former Vice-Governor of Kaliningrad Region: ‘We began erecting it as a building of the Regional Party Committee. Work progressed rapidly under the Party’s control. The building had already been provided heating, and in one part of the building flooring and wallpapering had been completed. About two years work was required to complete the building and about 5 million roubles’ worth of work was left.’ The 5 million roubles, however, were never found.

There are no legends about the Bridge of [Sigh] and couples do not kiss underneath it and make a wish. But if you scramble up the bank here you can get a good view of Moskovsky Prospekt and Dom Sovietov.