Las Arenas Beach

This guide to Las Arenas Beach in Bilbao follows the world's oldest transporter bridge overhead, designed by Alberto Palacio, a young engineer trained under Gustave Eiffel. It traces the bridge from its 1893 opening through the Spanish Civil War, when retreating soldiers dynamited its upper crossbeam in 1937 to slow Franco's advance. You'll hear how Palacio, living nearby, watched his life's work collapse from his own window. Listen with a view toward the black iron span stretching across to Portugalete.