Gaia cable car - Cais de Gaia station

This guide to the Gaia cable car's Cais de Gaia station opens on 29 March 1809, as French troops under Marshal Soult stormed into Porto and residents fled across the Ponte das Barcas, a bridge of boats near where the iron bridge now stands. It follows the disputed accounts of what happened on that crossing, a collapsing span, a panicked crowd, cavalry with drawn swords, before the cable car glides past the same slope today. Look up at the round monastery of Serra do Pilar, which once watched the whole crossing unfold.