Most of the islands which were once in the Daugava River are long gone. Some were washed out into the sea. Some were paved. Others were joined to one of the river’s banks or the other. The islands were sometimes named for their first inhabitants or for various famous people. Sometimes the Latvian name of an island is the result of an imprecise translation or pronunciation of an older German name. The same has been true of a variety of streets in Riga. The island known as Vējzaķsala, for instance, was named after a German called Heziod Fegezak. The name of most islands, however, reflects plants or animals on their territory or related incidents. Within the former borders of the Riga port there were four islands called Putnu (Bird) island, as well as several that were known as Zaķu (Rabbit) island. There used to be Zirgu (Horse) and Gubernatora (Governor’s) island, the latter of which was also known as the Komandanta (Commander’s) island. There are no problems with the name of the tiny Mīlestības (Love) island. Until World War I, there was a bridge which joined Daugavgrīva and Bolderāja and ran across one corner of Mīlestības island. The name of the island, like the island itself, is quite new – in 1913 the island had been described, but not yet named.
An 1807 design for the port does not yet contain Andrejsala (Andrejs island) – at that time there was a sandbar in the Daugava opposite the Ķeizardārzs area. It gradually increased in size and rose above the water, and in the mid-19th century it was first seen as a proper island. We do not know why exactly it is known as Andrejsala (Andreasholm). Perhaps the name was given to it in honour of the apostle Andrew, given that Tsar Peter placed the Cross of St Andrew in the flag of the Russian imperial navy. Of course, this island appeared to be too small and insignificant for such a name. Perhaps a Latvian fisherman named Andrejs built his home there. According to most information, however, the island was not inhabited.
We can say that Andrejsala is one of the youngest islands in the Daugava. When the river was much wider at this particular location, there was another island – Bisenieka island – near its right bank. Much of the island was washed away, and the rest merged with the bank of the river. Later, in approximately the same place, there was an island that was called Fosa island. The parts of the island which were not washed away are now located under the Viesturdārzs territory.
Andrejsala did not last as an island very long. In the context of a plan to regulate the Daugava that was developed in 1869 and 1870, a dam that was approximately one kilometre in length was built along the right bank of the river. It was known as the YZ dam. The dam began opposite the Rīga Castle and followed the flow of the river (the locks of the Citadele canal were at this site at that time), ending at Andrejsala. The main job for this dam was to concentrate and strengthen the flow of water and, by extension, the transport of sand toward the sea.
The Andrejs dam was not close to the island of the same name – it ended on a sandbar, i.e., on an underwater part of the island. The designer of the project may have felt that if the flow of the river was to be shifted away from the shore, it would not be necessary to provide close links between the dam and the island. It is also possible that the unstable and low-lying sand which makes up Andrejsala shifted a bit lower or flowed away from the dam over the course of the building process, as the flow of the river was diverted. It may have seemed at that time that the fact that the Andrejs dam did not reach Andrejsala was insignificant, but over the course of time that belief proved to be wrong.
There was a serious lack of piers at the Riga port, and it was eventually decided that the Andrejs dam could be used for cargo operations. Between 1870 and 1872, that side of the river was deepened. In a report that was filed at that time, the author spoke highly of the fact that a new place for piers, approximately one kilometre in length, had been developed. The dam had steep and rocky shores, so ships could not be tied up right alongside it. Wooden footbridges had to be installed.
Soon after this process ended, the upper part of the Andrejs dam, more than one-half of the entire length, was turned over to the Customs Board. Between 1875 and 1877, the Muita (Customs) shoreline was installed along the river, starting at the Rīga Castle. In place of the steep shore, a vertical stone wall was installed. Its stretched 10 feet above the average water level.
A narrow gauge railroad used to run through the garden territory of the shoreline, presumably with horse-drawn wagons. The tracks did not run beyond the fence of the territory, however. Soon enough the Muita shoreline was connected to the rest of the world by a proper railroad. The selection of the track may seem odd from the modern perspective, but it has to be said that at that time it was the most rational option. A railroad to Jaunmīlgrāvis had been installed in 1873, but it would have been expensive and complicated to install a branch of the track to connect it to the customs port. That was because the right bank of the Daugava had not yet been built up downriver from the city, it was low lying and full of water. That is why the new track was installed where it was. From the main railroad station in Riga, a spur led to the place where the pavilions of the Central Market are located today. Then the track ran down Maskavas street, through a viaduct which was under the first railroad bridge (opened in 1872), and then along the shore of the Daugava to the Muita shoreline. Because the bank of the river opposite the Old City served as a port and a market at that time, and because it also fulfilled various other, less important goals (the entry point to the Plosta (raft) bridge was found there, for instance), the rail line awarded additional liveliness to the territory. It is peculiar that no artist has ever produced a picture of the city panorama in which a smoky train engine is in the foreground.
A railroad was installed along the banks of the Daugava no later than in 1881, and it existed at least until 1896, when the Muita garden was connected to the railway via Andrejsala. The new line, which hindered urban life, was dismantled, although some pieces of track were still in place alongside the Riga castle until the early part of the 20th century.
After long-lasting disputes between bureaucrats at the Finance Ministry and an organisation which represented major trading companies, it was decided to extend the Muita shoreline by adding to it the section of the Andrejs dam which was still in place. Soon enough, however, it turned out that this still did not offer enough room. The Muita garden could be expanded only at the expense of the river or the land which lay behind it, while turnover in the shipping industry could be enhanced not by extending the length of the piers, but rather by speeding up the process of loading and unloading the vessels. In 1910, extensive work began on rebuilding and modernising the shoreline.
