The Stone Bridge in Iași was built around 1870 to cross the Bahlui River and is today included in the List of Historical Monuments. In the second half of the 20th century, a concrete bridge was built next to it, which took over road traffic.
The Bahlui River is 119 km long and has a watershed of 2,007 km². It rises in Botoșani County and flows into the Jijia River, near the Chiperești locality, in Iași County. Its name is of Cuman (Turkish) origin, meaning "muddy stream". The river crosses the cities of Hârlău and Iași, over a distance of 14 km in Iași, dividing the city in two. Its main tributaries include the Gurguiata, Durușca, Ciric, Bahluieț, Nicolina, Voinești and Valea Locei. The first documentary attestation of Bahlui appears in 1384, in a document issued by Petru I Mușat, which also mentions the water mills on the river.
Plans to regularize Bahlui existed since 1785, when it was proposed to build a navigable canal through Iași. The Organic Regulation of 1832 revived the idea of uniting the Siret with the Prut through Bahlui, in order to facilitate trade in the capital. After moving the capital to Bucharest in 1862, Mihail Kogălniceanu demanded economic compensation for Iași, including the construction of this navigable canal. In literary terms, the poet Vasile Alecsandri dedicated an ode to the Bahlui River in 1844, in which he described it as full of mud and a haven for frogs, and Mihai Codreanu mentioned it in the sonnet *Diana*.
Between 1911-1913, a rectification of the riverbed was carried out in the area of Iași municipality. The city was affected by major floods in 1871 and 1932, the latter being evoked in the novel *Turnuri sub apă* by Sandu Teleajen. In the 1960s-1970s, under the mayoralty of Ioan Manciuc, works to regularize the riverbed took place, following the repeated danger of floods. In the 1980s, the Ministry of Environment developed a project to transform the river into a navigable canal, but the plan was abandoned by the communist authorities.
Sursa: turistiniasi.blogspot.com
