Why the metro is so deep

Saint Petersburg stands on water-logged sands, loams and quicksand. Tunnels are safer deeper down, in dense Cambrian clay, so 55 of 75 stations lie more than 50 metres below ground.

The bed of the Neva is 8–11 metres deep and reaches 24 metres only near Smolny. Tunnels pass under the river several times deeper than its bed.

Only stretches on the outskirts are shallow, and five terminal stations were built at street level.

How to use it

• Drag with the left button or a finger to rotate, scroll or pinch to zoom. To move the map, drag it with the mouse wheel held down, with the right button or with Shift.
• Everything is at true scale: station depths, building heights, the relief and the riverbeds. From afar the metro is a thin layer under the city, so select a station: the map zooms in and shows it from the side.
• A depth gauge appears next to the selected station, and escalator inclines lead from the station up to the vestibule.
• The time of day above the map changes the light and, between 1:10 and 5:30, raises the bridges on schedule.
• The Layers button switches buildings, roads, parks, relief, rivers, bridges, boats, tunnels, escalators, labels and the gauge. The panel on the left collapses.

Deepest stations

1. Admiralteyskaya – 86 m, Frunzensko-Primorskaya line
2. Komendantsky Prospekt – 75 m, Frunzensko-Primorskaya line
3. Proletarskaya – 72 m, Nevsko-Vasileostrovskaya line
4. Ploshchad Lenina – 71 m, Kirovsko-Vyborgskaya line
5. Gorny Institut – 71 m, Lakhtinsko-Pravoberezhnaya line
6. Sadovaya – 71 m, Frunzensko-Primorskaya line
7. Chernyshevskaya – 70 m, Kirovsko-Vyborgskaya line
8. Primorskaya – 68 m, Nevsko-Vasileostrovskaya line
9. Prospekt Bolshevikov – 68 m, Lakhtinsko-Pravoberezhnaya line
10. Ploschad Muzhestva – 67 m, Kirovsko-Vyborgskaya line