A seasoned academic, David Dessler, PhD, focused on foreign policy and international relations for three decades as a tenured professor at The College of William and Mary in Virginia. In 2001, Dr. David Dessler had an opportunity to explore the Russian city of St. Petersburg as part of a mission to establish a study abroad program for W&M.
One memorable aspect of the trip was staying in the Angleterre Hotel near St. Isaac’s Cathedral and the Neva River. With many cities situated near coastlines and rivers, St. Petersburg is unique in the sheer influence of water in its design. Inhabiting the Neva River delta, the city encompasses nearly 200 miles of canals and rivers, as well as 800 bridges.
Within the city center, the river has been buttressed for centuries with massive granite embankments that edge into the river. The Winter Palace, for example, is part of an embankment that extends 295 feet into the Neva, whereas the Pirogovskaya Embankment extends more than 650 feet into the river. With flooding a historical danger, construction started in the late 1970s on a Gulf of Finland dam that, while not fully complete, provides much better protection to the city than before.
