Fragments of Glūkas Railway Bridge

Glūko railway bridge – a former railway bridge over Varėna, located in Glūko village, Varėna district, 4 km north of Senosios Varėnos, southwest of Glūko lake. On road 127 Babriškės–Varėna–Eišiškės leading to the bridge, there is a signpost to the tourist attraction (0.7 km). At this crossroads stands a 1920 stone monument to those who died for Lithuania's independence. A bicycle route “Olita – Orany (Alytus – Varėna)” passes over the bridge.

The remains of Glūko bridge are a regional architectural and engineering monument, entered into the Register of Cultural Values in 2018. The bridge was built in 1899.

The main load-bearing structure over the Varėna river was a metal truss supported by the banks at both ends. Remaining are the railway approach embankments, both bank abutments on both sides of Varėna. A wooden pedestrian footbridge is built next to them. From it, fragments of the former wooden intermediate support (wooden piles in place of the metal bridge) can be seen. The remains of the bank supports consist of two rectangular-plan abutments on the western and eastern banks. The abutments are finished with hewn stones with a textured surface. Rectangular openings with semicircular lintels pass through the abutments.

When constructing the Varėna-Alytus railway, behind the Artilerijos (Glūko) railway station it crossed the Varėna river, so a bridge about 21 m long was built over it in 1894. In 1915, the retreating Tsarist army blew up the Glūko bridge over Varėna. The advancing Germans soon rebuilt the destroyed bridge, using a repaired truss for this purpose. One end of the truss was shortened, so it was supported on a newly built wooden intermediate support, and the short span was covered with a wooden parabolic truss.

In the third decade of the 20th century, train traffic from Kaunas via Alytus to Artilerijos station still occurred. In 1925, the railway administration decided to close the wooden bridge over the Nemunas river in Alytus (now Baltosios rožės bridge) due to poor technical condition, and the branch to Varėna was abandoned.