Pickala creek
Pikkalanjoki
Pickalaån is in Sjundeå about 35 kilometers west of Helsingfors. The creek is now a narrow little creek, but 150 years ago it was a sound. The lake Vikträsk was a bay of the sea.
There was a fairway from the Gulf of Finland more then 5 kilometers up through Pickalaån to a harbour called Sjundby. Land elevation made the fairway too shallow when steamertraffic increased, and the steamers were built bigger. A new harbour was built at Pickala village about 1,5 kilometers from the sea.
The fairway was dredged so that steamers on the route from Helsingfors to Åbo could get into this new harbour.
A low bridge had been built across the fairway, but it was now replaced by a dubbel bascule bridge, a kind of bridge very rare in Finland.
The passengertraffic on this route ceased in 1902 when railroads were more favourable and faster. A new harbour was built for barges close to the entrance from the sea.
Tarmo Hurskainen © 2005
Source: Tarmo Hurskainen's own investigations, 2006
Do send comments or further information to Bosse Arnholm
Click here to get back to the startpage.
This page was modified at