Puente de Vizcaya

Puente de Vizcaya
UNESCO world heritage
	The ferry while translating
National territory:	Spain
Type:	Culture
Criteria :	i, ii
Surface:	0.86 ha
Reference No .:	1217
UNESCO region :	Europe and North America
	History of enrollment
Enrollment:	2006 (session 30)

The Biscay Bridge ( Spanish Puente (de) Vizcaya , Basque Bizkaiko Zubia ) is a transporter bridge and as a world heritage site by the UNESCO recognized. It is the oldest transporter bridge in the world and is still in operation today.

designation

The complex is also called Puente de Portugalete or, after its builder, the Basque architect and engineer Alberto Palacio Elissague , Puente Palacio . In Spain, however, it is best known under the name Puente Colgante ("Hanging Bridge"). However, it is not a suspension bridge in the technical sense, but a transporter bridge ( i.e. a high bridge that carries the track of a suspension bark ).

Geographical location

The transporter bridge connects the municipality of Portugalete with the Las Arenas district of the municipality of Getxo in the agglomeration of Bilbao , in the autonomous community of the Basque Country , province of Bizkaia . The two places are separated by the Ría de Bilbao , the mouth of the Nervión River into the Bay of Biscay , which is navigable for seagoing vessels . The bridge is easily accessible by metro (L 1, Areeta station in Getxo and L 2, Portugalete station).

Technical specifications

The system consists of 45-meter-high steel lattice towers on both banks with a 160-meter-long horizontal supporting structure in between, on which the transport barge is suspended. The approximately 14 x 10 meter barge can be used to transport people and cars (up to six cars), but the payload is limited to 22 tons. In addition, there is a pedestrian crossing in the upper part of the high bridge, which can be reached by elevator . The transporter bridge was the first of its kind and was the model for around 20 similar installations in Europe , Africa and America . As of 1916, their construction was abandoned because of the relatively low capacity of such systems. Seven suspension ferries are still in operation around the world today.

history

construction

The transporter bridge was designed by the French Basque Country-born engineer and architect Alberto Palacio, a pupil of Gustave Eiffel , and built together with the engineer Ferdinand Arnodin . The construction served the growing traffic of the baths on both banks . Palacio was faced with the challenge of creating a crossing that would not hinder ship traffic and that would do without long ramps, as there was no space for it in the city. He solved the problem with a steel structure that is stabilized by wire ropes. The transporter bridge was completed and opened in 1893.

Destruction and rebuilding

The horizontal link was destroyed during the Spanish Civil War in 1937 to stop the advance of Franco's troops. The towers on both sides of the river were also affected. Alberto Palacio had to watch from his house in Portugalete how his masterpiece was partially destroyed. He died two years later. After the war, the shoring was rebuilt and the transporter ferry was put back into operation in 1941.

Todays use

The panoramic path on the Puente de Vizcaya

The ferry is operated by El Transbordador de Bizkaia, SL and is open all year round from five in the morning to ten in the evening. Cars and people are transferred every eight minutes during operating hours. The crossing takes one and a half minutes and costs 40 cents for a ride in the cabin (as of September 2016).

Crossing the Ría de Bilbao on the bridge on foot costs eight euros (as of October 2017). You are lifted up in an elevator and walk above the drive via a panoramic path to the other side. This panoramic path was inaugurated on July 23, 1999 in the presence of the Spanish King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofia .

The bridge is firmly integrated into Bilbao's transport network and saves passengers a detour of almost twenty kilometers of the motorway.

World heritage

On July 13, 2006, the transporter bridge was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. UNESCO regards the building as one of the outstanding steel structures from the time of the industrial revolution . The statement reads:

“Vizcaya Bridge, through the development of the hanging transporter mechanism and its fusion of iron working technology with new steel cables, created a new form of construction that influenced the development of bridges around the world over the next three decades and exported French and Spanish technologies . ”

"With the Biscay Bridge, a new construction method was created through the development of a hanging transport mechanism and the structural connection of the steel structure with the new wire rope technology , which influenced the development of bridge construction worldwide in the following three decades and contributed to the export of French and Spanish technology . "