Dom Luís I Bridge

Photo by Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20128006

The Dom Luís I (or Luiz I) Bridge (Portuguese: Ponte Luís I or Luiz I) is a metal arch bridge that spans the Douro River between the cities of Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia in Portugal. At the time of construction its span of 172 m was the longest of its type in the world.

The government held a competition for the construction of a metallic bridge over the Douro River on a site that was adjacent to an existing bridge that it would replace. Téophile Seyrig had engineered the D. Maria Pia Bridge project nearby, whilst working as a partner of Gustave Eiffel. He now took sole responsibility for the new, major Luís I Bridge. The construction was begun in 1881 and the bridge opened on 31 October 1886 (the upper deck; the lower deck opened in 1887).

 

Photo by Edgar Jiménez - Flickr: Ponte da Arrábida, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18020965

    Total length 385.25 m
    Weight 3045 tons
    The arch measures 172 m in length and 44.6 m in height

Originally and for more than a century, the bridge carried road traffic on both decks. Along with other vehicles, electric trams crossed the upper deck from 1908[2] until May 1959, and trolleybuses crossed both decks from May 1959 until 1993.[3] In 2003, the top deck was closed to private motor traffic and since that time the top deck has been occupied by Line D of the Metro do Porto light rail system (which opened in 2005) and a pedestrian walkway, offering great views on the historic center of Porto, the Port wine caves of Vila Nova de Gaia and the river Douro.

In 1982, the bridge was designated a cultural heritage "Property of Public Interest" (Imóvel de Interesse Público) by IGESPAR, the Institute for the Management of Architectural and Archaeological Heritage, a federal agency.

The bridge often is confused with the nearby Maria Pia Bridge, a railway bridge built nine years earlier and located a kilometre to the east. However, although they bear a strong resemblance to one another, the earlier bridge has only one deck.

 

Source: Wikipedia.org