Throughout the preceding chapters, we have seen how iron ore has conditioned the evolution of this land from the Iron Age to the present. Its abundance in our soil has been decisive in shaping our landscape, our way of life and our own culture as a people.
We have also been able to see the enormous impact that the Industrial Revolution had on our territory. In the second half of the 19th century, iron became, worldwide, the living image of progress, since it was used to build railroads, steamships, machines and also modern structures for construction and engineering.
The protagonist of this chapter is a survivor of those innovative constructions: the Vizcaya Bridge, a true symbol of that new Basque “Iron Age”.
Symbol of an era
The Vizcaya Bridge, or “Puente Colgante”, is one of the great monuments of the Industrial Revolution.
Inaugurated in 1893, at the height of the Basque mining and industrial activity, it was designed to link the towns of Portugalete and Getxo, right where the Nervión River meets the sea. Its past and present image, as a triumphal arch under which all boats heading for Bilbao had to pass, became the best symbol of the industrial power of Biscay.
The world’s first ferry bridge
As we have seen, since 1887, the construction of the Portugalete iron dock had eliminated the dreaded sand bar, the great obstacle that prevented deep-draught ships from sailing up the waters of the Nervión. Once this obstacle was overcome, it was necessary to communicate the two towns mentioned above, but without interrupting the increasingly intense maritime traffic generated by mining and industrial activity. To understand the importance of its design it is necessary to understand that at this time navigation was steam powered, so the ships were equipped with high chimneys and even masts.
The Vizcaya Bridge was the first ferry bridge built in the world, the result of the fusion of two different technological innovations: modern cable-stayed bridge engineering developed in the mid-19th century and the technology of large mechanical vehicles driven by steam engines.
Structurally, it consists of four riveted steel lattice towers, cable-stayed and linked two by two, with a total height of 51 meters. Between the two pairs of towers located on each shore, parabolic cables are strung from which hangs the upper deck, 160 meters long, suspended 45 meters above the water level at high tide. A mechanical cart rolls along this deck, from which hangs a platform located at the level of the banks. This nacelle is capable of transporting both vehicles and foot passengers.
A private bridge
The Basque architect Alberto de Palacio Elissagüe and the French builder Ferdinand Arnodin patented the invention of the “Vizcaya Bridge” in 1888. Economy of means, bare construction and practical use of technology in the service of social needs were the features of modernity that inspired their project and were expressed in the bridge with an avant-garde, elegant and monumental language.
The construction was financed by a group of small local businessmen led by Santos López de Letona, a textile industrialist. Since then, and except for a small lapse of a few years, due to its blowing up during the Civil War, the bridge has continued to transport people and vehicles, always under private management.
The father of a saga
The “Vizcaya Bridge” was the first in the world to combine a suspension structure with a ferry vehicle. During the first third of the 20th century, it inspired the construction of more than twenty similar bridges in Europe, Africa and America. Today, nine of its descendants are still standing, although most have ceased to function and none remain in better condition than it.
France was the country where most ferry bridges were built, thanks to Ferdinand Arnodin, who knew how to make the most of the original patent. Similar bridges were built in ports such as Bizerte (Tunisia, then a French colony), Rouen, Bordeaux, Nantes, Marseilles and Brest. In the course of time, almost all of them were dismantled, destroyed or bombed in war conflicts. The only one still in operation is Rochefort-Martrou, which dates from 1900.
Five such structures were built in the United Kingdom, although three of them have disappeared. However, the Newport Bridge, opened in 1906, is still in operation. In Germany, there were three ferry bridges; two are still standing today, and one of them, the Osten Bridge, is still in operation.
Ferry bridges were also built in the Americas, although today only one is still in service: the one located in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of La Boca, Argentina. Others, such as the Sky Ride in Chicago and the Ponte Alejandrino in Rio de Janeiro, were demolished, while the Duluth Bridge in the United States ceased operating some time ago.
World Heritage
The importance of the Vizcaya Bridge as a symbol of the Industrial Revolution and its universal heritage, as the inspiring model for a saga of similar bridges around the world, have earned it worldwide recognition. On July 13, 2006 it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, being chosen from a total of 37 nominations. UNESCO considers the Vizcaya Bridge to be one of the most outstanding works of iron architecture of the Industrial Revolution and highlighted its innovative use of braided light steel cables.
Today, more than 130 years after its inauguration, the Vizcaya Bridge continues to make more than three hundred daily transfer trips and averages six million pedestrians and half a million vehicles per year. This vitality, functionality and unquestionable social impact are the best guarantee for its preservation.