Podolsk

Podolsk, a town of Russia, in the government of Moscow, 26 m. S. of the city of Moscow, at the junction of the two main roads from Moscow to the Crimea and to Warsaw. Pop. (1881), 11,000; (1897), 3808. It is picturesquely built on the hilly banks of the Pakhra, here crossed by a suspension bridge for carriages as well as by the railway bridge. Down to 1781 the wealthy village of Podol was a dependency of the Danilov monastery in Moscow. Before the opening of the southern railway the caravans of wagons and sledges to and from Moscow used to halt here; the principal occupation of the inhabitants was innkeeping and supplying the caravans with provisions and other necessaries of travel. The limestone quarries, at the confluence of the Desna and the Pakhra, supply the capital with good building material; and there are a cement, lime and brick factory and a paper-mill.