Bridge Maria Pia
Wrought-iron railway arch spanning a deep river gorge, built cable-cantilevered from both banks without a single mid-river pillar.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Maria Pia Bridge in Porto begins in 1875, when four teams competed to fling a railway bridge across the deep Douro gorge and Gustave Eiffel refused to sink a single pillar into the river. It follows his unusually low bid, and the crews building out from both riverbanks at once on cables anchored into the hillside, closing the gap toward the middle. Picture the single iron arch from the riverbank below, sixty-one meters overhead.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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