Arenal Bridge

Arenal Bridge
Arenal Bridge; Spanish: Puente del Arenal; Basque: Areatzako zubia
	Arenal Bridge in winter
Coordinates	43°15′37″N2°55′30″W / 43.2603°N 2.925°W Coordinates: 43°15′37″N2°55′30″W / 43.2603°N 2.925°W
Carries	Motor vehicles; Streetcars ; Pedestrians
Crosses	Estuary of Bilbao
Locale	Bilbao
Official name	Puente del Arenal
Characteristics
Design	Reinforced concrete bridge
Material	Concrete
History
Construction start	1845 (original bridge); 1878 (stone bridge); 1937 (current)
Construction end	1848 (original bridge); 1878 (stone bridge); 1938 (current)
Collapsed	April 12, 1874 (original bridge); June 19, 1937 (stone bridge)
Statistics
Toll	Free both ways

Last updated May 26, 2019

The Arenal Bridge (Spanish: Puente del Arenal, Basque: Areatzako zubia^[1]) is a reinforced concrete bridge in Bilbao, Spain.

Spanish or Castilian is a Romance language that originated in the Castile region of Spain and today has hundreds of millions of native speakers in the Americas and Spain. It is a global language and the world's second-most spoken native language, after Mandarin Chinese.

Basque language Language of the Basque people

Basque (; euskara[eus̺ˈkaɾa]) is a language spoken in the Basque Country, a region that straddles the westernmost Pyrenees in adjacent parts of northern Spain and southwestern France. Linguistically, Basque is unrelated to the other languages of Europe and is a language isolate to any other known living language. The Basques are indigenous to, and primarily inhabit, the Basque Country. The Basque language is spoken by 28.4% (751,500) of Basques in all territories. Of these, 93.2% (700,300) are in the Spanish area of the Basque Country and the remaining 6.8% (51,200) are in the French portion.

Reinforced concrete (RC) (also called reinforced cement concrete or RCC) is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are counteracted by the inclusion of reinforcement having higher tensile strength or ductility. The reinforcement is usually, though not necessarily, steel reinforcing bars (rebar) and is usually embedded passively in the concrete before the concrete sets. Reinforcing schemes are generally designed to resist tensile stresses in particular regions of the concrete that might cause unacceptable cracking and/or structural failure. Modern reinforced concrete can contain varied reinforcing materials made of steel, polymers or alternate composite material in conjunction with rebar or not. Reinforced concrete may also be permanently stressed, so as to improve the behaviour of the final structure under working loads. In the United States, the most common methods of doing this are known as pre-tensioning and post-tensioning.

The Estuary of Bilbao lies at the common mouth of the rivers Nervion, Ibaizabal and Cadagua, that drain most of Biscay and part of Alava in the Basque Country, Spain. In this instance, the Spanish word estuario is used to describe what in English would normally be called part estuary, part tidal river. The estuary becomes a tidal river which extends 16 km (9.9 mi) into the city of Bilbao, starting from the Bilbao Abra bay. It hosts the port of Bilbao throughout its length, although the Port Authority has recently restored most of the upper reaches to Bilbao and other municipalities for their urban regeneration. The port is now being transferred to the seaboard on the coast at Santurtzi and Zierbena.

Las Siete Calles or Casco Viejo in Spanish or Zazpikaleak or Alde Zaharra in Basque are different names for the medieval neighbourhood of Bilbao, part of the Ibaiondo district. The names mean Seven Streets or Old Town respectively and it used to be the walled part of the town until the end of the 19th century.

Abando, formerly known as San Vicente de Abando, is one of the eight districts of Bilbao, Basque Country (Spain). It covers most of the city's centre, located on the left bank of the estuary of Bilbao. It is the only district of Bilbao with all of its land completely urbanised. Abando was originally an elizate and also a municipality until 1876, when part of it was annexed to Bilbao, the rest of the elizate's municipal land was integrated into Bilbao in 1890. In 2016 the population was 50,903.

The Arriaga Theater, the Arenal de Bilbao (Bilbao Arenal) park, the Estación de Concordia (Concordia Train Station) and the Bailén Skyscraper (the first skyscraper of the city) can be seen from the bridge.

The Arriaga antzokia in Basque or Teatro Arriaga in Spanish is an opera house in Bilbao, Spain. It was built in Neo-baroque style by architect Joaquín Rucoba in 1890, the same architect that built the city hall. It is named after Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga, known in his time as the "Spanish Mozart".

History

Along with the growth of Bilbao, the urban centre of the city expanded beyond the old original seven streets, and started to expand over territories of the, by that time, elizate of Abando. In fact, the transit of people moving from Abando to Bilbao or from Bilbao to Abando grew every year and became more fluid. As the only bridge that crossed the Estuary of Bilbao was the San Antón Bridge, it became a necessity and a priority to build a new bridge that would connect both banks of the river.^[2]

An elizate, is an early form of local government in the Basque Country which was particularly common in Biscay but also existed in the other provinces. The terms elizate and elexate literally translate as "church door". The Spanish term anteiglesia translates as "before [the] church" or "parvise".

The San Antón Bridge is an arch bridge in Bilbao, Spain. It spans the Estuary of Bilbao, linking the neighborhoods of Bilbao La Vieja and Casco Viejo. It is the oldest bridge in the city, with the original bridge being opened before 1318. At the time of its opening, and during centuries, it was the only bridge that crossed the river. It is located next to the Church of San Antón.

Iron Bridge (1845 - 1876)

The bridge project was introduced in 1844, and it was built during 1845, to be finally opened in 1847. Once finished, it became the third bridge that crossed the river and also became the main connection between Bilbao and the elizate of Abando. It had an iron structure (it was the first known Spanish bridge made by casting) and it was a moveable bridge.^[3] The bridge was named Isabella II .^[4] The Queen Isabella II herself wanted to see the bridge during her visit to the city in 1865, in which the Prince of Asturias (which later would become the King Alfonso XII) joined her. In 1866 the internal structure of the bridge, which allowed it to open and close (moveable bridge) stopped working. Until 1870, a toll had to be paid in order to cross the bridge.

Spain, officially the Kingdom of Spain, is a country mostly located in Europe. Its continental European territory is situated on the Iberian Peninsula. Its territory also includes two archipelagoes: the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa, and the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea. The African enclaves of Ceuta, Melilla, and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera make Spain the only European country to have a physical border with an African country (Morocco). Several small islands in the Alboran Sea are also part of Spanish territory. The country's mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for a small land boundary with Gibraltar; to the north and northeast by France, Andorra, and the Bay of Biscay; and to the west and northwest by Portugal and the Atlantic Ocean.

Casting is a manufacturing process in which a liquid material is usually poured into a mold, which contains a hollow cavity of the desired shape, and then allowed to solidify. The solidified part is also known as a casting, which is ejected or broken out of the mold to complete the process. Casting materials are usually metals or various time setting materials that cure after mixing two or more components together; examples are epoxy, concrete, plaster and clay. Casting is most often used for making complex shapes that would be otherwise difficult or uneconomical to make by other methods.

A moveable bridge, or movable bridge, is a bridge that moves to allow passage for boats or barges. In American English, the term is synonymous with drawbridge, and the latter is the common term, but drawbridge can be limited to the narrower, historical definition used in some other forms of English, in which drawbridge refers only to a specific type of moveable bridge.

During the following years, several floods and other causes damaged severely the bridge. Three of its original arches were replaced with sections of wood. The bridge suffered more damage on the Carlist Wars, when a bombardment fell over the city on April 2, 1874. Finally, on April 11 and April 12 of the same year, the bridge was partially destroyed in a flood.

A flood is an overflow of water that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrology and are of significant concern in agriculture, civil engineering and public health.

The Carlist Wars were a series of civil wars that took place in Spain during the 19th century. The contenders fought to establish their claim to the throne, although some political differences also existed. Indeed, several times during the period from 1833 to 1876 the Carlists — followers of Infante Carlos and his descendants — rallied to the cry of "God, Country, and King" and fought for the cause of Spanish tradition against liberalism, and later the republicanism, of the Spanish governments of the day. The Carlist Wars had a strong regional component, given that the new order called into question region–specific law arrangements and customs kept for centuries.

A bombardment is an attack by artillery fire or by dropping bombs from aircraft on fortifications, combatants, or towns and buildings.

In 1876 one of its arches was placed on Udondo River (Leioa) where it is today. .^[5]

Stone Bridge (1878 - 1937)

In 1876, after the destruction of the original bridge, one of the projects by Adolfo de Ibarreta was approved. The project included a new three-arch bridge made of stone. The new bridge was opened to public on December 1, 1878. The new bridge limited the fluvial transport to barges and small steam boats. This bridge, also called Isabella II, had a bigger surface for road transit, which allowed tramways connect both sides of the river using the bridge.

In June, 1937, during the Civil War, the bridge was demolished and a temporary one was built with pieces of wood and barges.

Reinforced Concrete Bridge (1938 - present time)

In June, 1938, a new reinforced concrete bridge was opened where the old Isabella II bridge was located. The new bridge was called Puente de la Victoria (Victory Bridge).

In 1980, the name of bridge was changed from Victory Bridge to the current one, Puente del Arenal (Arenal Bridge).

Related Research Articles

Bilbao is a city in northern Spain, the largest city in the province of Biscay and in the Basque Country as a whole. It is also the largest city proper in northern Spain. Bilbao is the tenth largest city in Spain, with a population of 345,141 as of 2015. The Bilbao metropolitan area has roughly 1 million inhabitants, making it one of the most populous metropolitan areas in northern Spain; with a population of 875,552 the comarca of Greater Bilbao is the fifth-largest urban area in Spain. Bilbao is also the main urban area in what is defined as the Greater Basque region.

Arenal may refer to:

Metro Bilbao is a rapid transit (metro) system serving the city of Bilbao and the region of Greater Bilbao. Lines 1 and 2 have a "Y" shape, as they transit both banks of the Nervión river and then combine to form one line that ends in the south of Bilbao. Line 3 has a "V" shape connecting the municipality of Etxebarri with the Bilbao neighbourhood of Matiko; the corner of the "V" is Zazpikaleak/Casco Viejo station, where all three current lines meet. The network of Metro Bilbao is connected with Euskotren Tranbia, Bilboko Aldiriak, Euskotren Trena, Feve, the Renfe service and Bilbao's bus station Termibus. It uses a meter gauge.

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Bilbao La Vieja in Spanish, "Old Bilbao" in English and Bilbo Zaharra in Basque.

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References

↑ Bilbao City Hall Website: Street map
↑ "Puente Del Arenal | Conocer Bilbao". Archived from the original on 2011-01-21. Retrieved 2010-12-11.
↑ Puentes sobre la ría de Bilbao, desde El Arenal hasta el Príncipes de España | Absolut Bilbao
↑ Conociendo El Ensanche de Bilbao
↑ A tail of two Spanish cast-iron bridges