Bridge of Sighs

This guide to Lima's Bridge of Sighs starts with a puzzle: why the city spent about ten million soles restoring a wooden footbridge you can cross in under a minute. It traces the bridge's construction in 1876 under Barranco's first mayor, its destruction by Chilean troops in 1881, and the earthquake in 1940 that shortened it from forty-four meters to about thirty-one. Poets, including songwriter Chabuca Granda, lingered here for decades composing verses to lost loves.