The construction of the Palacký Bridge, connecting the right bank of the Vltava River to the fast-developing industrial quarter of Smíchov on the opposite bank, was completed in 1878. A sense of nationalism was expressed when the national colours were imprinted into the bridge itself through using different stones of different colours, the arched vault blocks are made of blue granite, vault walls of red sandstone, and balustrade cones
of white Carrara marble. Unfortunately, pollution has seriously altered the stone colours. There were also statues referring to the mythical beginnings of Bohemia on the foreground of the bridge on both sides: Libuše and Přemysl, Lumír and Píseň, Záboj and Slavoj, and Ctirad with Šárka, all of them the work of sculptor Josef Václav Myslbek, they were after 1945 transferred to Vyšehrad because of the increase of the city traffic.
