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Vizcaya Bridge | |
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Coordinates | 43°19′23″N3°01′01″W / 43.3231°N 3.0169°W |
Crosses | Nervión |
Locale | Portugalete-Getxo (Biscay), Spain |
Characteristics | |
Design | Transporter bridge |
Material | Iron |
Total length | 160 m (520 ft) |
Height | 45 m (148 ft) |
History | |
Architect | Alberto Palacio |
Engineering design by | Ferdinand Arnodin |
Construction end | 1893 |
Official name | Vizcaya Bridge |
Criteria | Cultural: (i), (ii) |
Designated | 2006 (30th session) |
Reference no. | 1217 |
Region | Europe and North America |
Official name | Puente de Vizcaya |
Type | Non-movable |
Criteria | Monument |
Designated | 17 July 1984 |
Reference no. | RI-51-0005163 |
Location | |
The Vizcaya Bridge (Bizkaiko Zubia in Basque, Puente de Vizcaya in Spanish) is a transporter bridge that links the towns of Portugalete and Las Arenas (part of Getxo) in the Biscay province of Spain, crossing the mouth of the Nervion River.
People in the area, and even the official website, commonly call it the Puente Colgante (literally "hanging bridge", used for suspension bridge in Spanish), although its structure is quite different from a suspension bridge.
The Vizcaya Bridge was built to connect the two banks which are situated at the mouth of the Nervion River. It is the world's oldest transporter bridge and was built in 1893, designed by Alberto Palacio, one of Gustave Eiffel's disciples. The Engineer Ferdinand Joseph Arnodin was in charge, and the main financier of the project was Santos Lopez de Letona. It was the solution given by the engineer to the problem of connecting the towns of Portugalete and Getxo without disrupting the maritime traffic of the Port of Bilbao and without having to build a massive structure with long ramps. Palacio wanted to design a bridge which could transport passengers and cargo, and that could allow ships to go through. Palacio's shuttle bridge was adequate and could be built for a reasonable price.
The service was only interrupted once, for four years, during the Spanish Civil War, when the upper section was dynamited. From his house in Portugalete, Palacio saw his masterpiece partially destroyed just before his own death.
On 13 July 2006, the Vizcaya Bridge was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. In Spain, it is the only monument in the Industrial Heritage category. UNESCO considers the bridge to be a perfect combination of beauty and functionality. It was the first to use a combination of iron technology and new steel cables which began a new form of constructing bridges which was later imitated throughout the world.
The bridge, still in use, is 164 meters long, and its gondola can transport six cars and several dozen passengers in one and a half minutes.
It operates every 8 minutes during the day (every hour at night), all year round, with different fares for day and night services, and is integrated into Barik card system. An estimated four million passengers and half a million vehicles use the bridge annually. [1]
There are two new visitor lifts installed in the 50-metre-high pillars of the bridge that allow walking over the bridge's platform, from where there is a view of the port and the Abra bay.
The structure is made of four 61 metre towers which are the pillars and stand on the river banks. The towers are braced by iron cables to the crossbeam and are parallel to the river and by cables following the line of the bridge into the hill behind (on the Portugalete side) and the ground (on the Las Arenas side). The upper crossbeam which lies horizontally, rests between two towers by 70 suspension cables. They also help support a great amount of weight and are supported in the corbels which helps balance the weight. The gondola transports vehicles and they hang from a 36-wheeled caty and is 25m. long. It moves along the rails through the horizontal crossbeam.
The structure is 45 metres high and 160 metres long. In the final design it was decided to use two horizontal girders to support the rails, and these are supported by four pillars which stand on four towers which are situated on the river banks. It is made of iron. Much iron was extracted from the mines of Vizcaya, which increased the mining and shipping industry. Therefore, the Vizcaya Bridge also represents the growth and triumph of a new era.
A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck is hung below suspension cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridges, which lack vertical suspenders, have a long history in many mountainous parts of the world.
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 more than 347,000 as of 2023. The Bilbao metropolitan area has 1,037,847 inhabitants, making it the most populous metropolitan area 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.
A cable-stayed bridge has one or more towers, from which cables support the bridge deck. A distinctive feature are the cables or stays, which run directly from the tower to the deck, normally forming a fan-like pattern or a series of parallel lines. This is in contrast to the modern suspension bridge, where the cables supporting the deck are suspended vertically from the main cable, anchored at both ends of the bridge and running between the towers. The cable-stayed bridge is optimal for spans longer than cantilever bridges and shorter than suspension bridges. This is the range within which cantilever bridges would rapidly grow heavier, and suspension bridge cabling would be more costly.
Biscay is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the Vascongadas, heir of the ancient Lordship of Biscay, lying on the south shore of the eponymous bay. The capital and largest city is Bilbao.
A transporter bridge, also known as a ferry bridge or aerial transfer bridge, is a type of movable bridge that carries a segment of roadway across a river. The gondola is slung from a tall span by wires or a metal frame. The design has been used to cross navigable rivers or other bodies of water, where there is a requirement for ship traffic to be able to pass. This has been a rare type of bridge, with fewer than two dozen built. There are just twelve that continue to be used today, including one converted into a lift bridge and one designed as, but not yet operating as, a transporter bridge.
The Newport Transporter Bridge is a transporter bridge that crosses the River Usk in Newport, South East Wales. The bridge is the lowest crossing on the River Usk. It is a Grade I listed structure.
Portugalete is a town lying to the west of Bilbao in the province of Biscay in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, northern Spain.
Getxo is a town located in the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country, in Spain. It is part of Greater Bilbao, and has 77,946 inhabitants (2019). Getxo is mostly an affluent residential area, as well as being the third largest municipality of Biscay.
The right bank of the estuary of the river Nervión in Biscay, Spain is part of the Metropolitan Area of Bilbao and is formed by the towns of Getxo, Leioa and Erandio. It includes affluent neighbourhoods like Neguri and Las Arenas, traditionally the residential areas of the industrial bourgeoisie. The municipality of Getxo is routinely listed amongst the cities with the highest real estate prices and personal income levels in Spain.
Areeta is a neighbourhood of Getxo. It is an affluent residential area that was built over the sands of a beach where the Gobela Creek died into a diffuse delta at the mouth of the Estuary of Bilbao in the early 20th century.
Alberto de Palacio y Elissague (1856-1939) was a Spanish engineer and architect born in Sare and grown up in Gordexola.
The Port of Bilbao is located on the Bilbao Abra bay, and along the Estuary of Bilbao, in Biscay. The main facilities are in the Santurtzi and Zierbena municipalities, approximately 15 km (9.3 mi) west of Bilbao. Also called Exterior Port and Superpuerto, the port complex occupies 3.13 km2 of land and 16.94 km2 of water along 17 km (10.6 mi) of waterfront.
Puente Colgante literally means "hanging bridge", which is the term used for suspension bridges in Spanish.
Puente, a word meaning bridge in Spanish language, may refer to:
Ferdinand Joseph Arnodin was a French engineer and industrialist born in Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon, Rhône who died in Châteauneuf-sur-Loire in Loiret. Specialising in cableway transporters, he is regarded as the inventor of the transporter bridge, having been the first to patent the idea in 1887. However, the first such bridge was in fact designed by Alberto Palacio, with Arnodin's help.
The Puente Colgante, originally called Puente de Clavería, was a suspension bridge that connected the Manila districts of Quiapo and Ermita across the Pasig River in the Philippines. Designed by Matia, Menchacatorre and Cía., completed in 1852, it was the first modern wire-cable suspension bridge in Asia and the first toll bridge of its kind in the Philippines. It was replaced by Quezon Bridge in 1939.
The Tirantes Bridge is a cantilever spar cable-stayed bridge that crosses the Lérez River in the city of Pontevedra, Spain, linking the south bank to the north bank at the level of the city's Congress Hall.