1741 (publication; journal volume dated 1736) / Europe
Euler explains the seven bridges through connections
Euler studied how the land areas were connected and proved that no route could cross each of Königsberg’s seven bridges exactly once.
Image unavailable. The caption and source are still available.
The story
The bridge paper set lengths and street shapes aside in favour of connections. In modern language, all four vertices have odd degree, preventing the required route. The Euler Archive records composition in 1735 and publication in 1741; the frequently cited 1736 is the journal volume’s nominal year. The full modern language of graph theory developed later.
Connections and context
The same abstraction can represent transport, communication and computing networks, making relationships themselves objects of proof.
Dates and precision
1741 (publication; journal volume dated 1736) Documented date
Positioned by the documented year, month or day. Missing precision is not inferred.
Representative map location
St Petersburg
The marker identifies the academy and journal’s publication setting; the bridges were in Königsberg, now Kaliningrad.
Representative coordinates · 59.9343°, 30.3351°
A marker identifies one representative place, such as a manuscript collection, laboratory or observing site. It does not mean the work happened only there, or assign a shared discovery to one country.
Bibliography
- University of the Pacific, Euler Archive: E53, Königsberg bridge problem
References are listed as plain bibliography titles. They support particular facts or context; a reference does not certify every interpretation in a story.