Yauza is a small river in the Moscow region and Moscow, the left, is the largest tributary of the Moscow River within the capital.
Even in the chronicles, the Yauza River is mentioned as the most critical transport artery of Ancient Rus’. It was part of the river route from the Moskva River to the Klyazma, connecting Moscow and Vladimir.
Length – 48 km. The mouth of the Yauza is in the center of Moscow, near the Bolshoy Ustyinsky Bridge.
The length of the river within Moscow is 27.6 km. The area of the drainage basin is 452 km². The average annual water flow at the mouth is 6 m³/s.
In 1908, the right bank of the Yauza, in the section from the confluence of the Kopytovka River to the intersection with the Kamer-Kollezhsky Val, became the official border of the city of Moscow.
The height of the source is 145 m above sea level. Mouth height – 115 m above sea level.
According to the General Plan of 1935, the Yauza was supposed to enter the Water Ring of Moscow. The plan provided for constructing the Northern Canal (Khimki Reservoir – Yauza) and locking the Yauza by building several low-pressure waterworks. Work on making embankments on the navigable section of the river was completed by 1940.
To “water” the Yauza, a small Likhoborsky (Golovinsky) diversion canal was built in 1940, through which the Volga water flows through the Moscow Canal and the Khimki Reservoir to the Golovinsky Ponds and further to the Yauza tributary Likhoborka. The canal passed along the route of one of the sections of the Northern Canal. However, this plan was not implemented, except for the construction in 1940, 3 km from the mouth of the Syromyatnichesky hydroelectric complex with a shipping lock.
The river is heavily polluted with untreated sewage and oil products. Particularly heavily polluted is the section of the Yauza from the mouth of the Khapilovka (Elektrozavodsky bridge). The bed of the Yauza is filled with sediment and various debris.
Within the boundaries of Moscow on Yauza, there are 28 roads, five railways and two metro bridges: Preobrazhensky – between the stations “Sokolniki” and “Preobrazhenskaya Square,” and Medvedkovsky – between the stations “Babushkinskaya” and “Medvedkovo.”
Tunnels under Yauza
The Lefortovo tunnel is part of the third transport ring with movement “counterclockwise” (the part that is “clockwise” crosses the Yauza on the bridge).
Metrotunnels of the Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya metro line – on the stretch between the Botanichesky Sad and VDNKh metro stations.
The metrotunnels of the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya metro line are on the stretch between Baumanskaya and Elektrozavodskaya stations.
The metrotunnels of the Lyublinsko-Dmitrovskaya metro line are on the stretch between Chkalovskaya and Rimskaya stations.
The metrotunnels of the Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya metro line are on the stretch between Kitay-Gorod and Taganskaya stations.
Metrotunnels of the Koltsevaya metro line – on the stretch between the Kurskaya and Taganskaya stations.
Notable buildings in Yauza
On the right bank of the Yauza are the Moscow State Technical University buildings by N. Bauman.
Here (now not visible from the embankment) is the Lefortovo Palace. Lefortovo Park stretches on the opposite bank, and behind it on the high bank stands the Catherine Palace. Nearby, on the right bank behind the Lefortovsky Bridge, stands the building of the Tupolev Design Bureau.
In Medvedkovo, on the right bank, the temple of Seraphim of Sarov is being restored. On the high left bank of the Yauza, there are the Andronikov Monastery and the temple of Sergius of Radonezh in the Rogozhskaya Sloboda.
At the mouth on the left bank is a Stalin residential building on the Kotelnicheskaya embankment.
