tunnal under the castle hill, which links up with the bridge. This construction,which was finished in 1857,was probably the first traffic tunnel of such a size in Europe the location of the Chain Bridge appears to have been decided in light of the availability of technically suitable land and the fact that an approach road to the Castle Hill already existed.Connections with Pest were not so good; the bridge lies on the edge of what in the nineteenth century was the centre of Pest instead of in the middle of the town where the river in narrowest,and where the Elizabeth Bridge was later built.
With the building of the Chain Bridge,Which was financed by toll charges,it became easier for the two towns to avail themselves of one another,but the treditional functional division between a state administrative centre and a commercial centre became even more maked over the following decades.The impact of the bridge on the physical structure of the towns was perhaps more limited than might have been expected. On the Buda bank,however ,the Krisztinavaros district expanded as a result of the splendid new communications with pest,and on the Pest bank some large office blocks were subsequently built close to the bridge,evidently because of the proximity of the offices of the state administration.But there were no dramatic shifts in the activities of the city centre; the retailers remained at their old sites in the inner city.