A Shirt on Sunday: Puente Vizcaya / Colgante / Bizkaia – Bilbao

Something a little different. Janet and I spent a week in the Basque Country in April and had an absolute blast. The principal reason was to visit the Guggenheim Museum – Frank Gehry’s incredible building on the banks of the Nervion River (or possibly the Ibaizabal, the subject is murky). While researching the trip I managed to find two funicular railways to ride (Bilbao & San Saebastian), but most of all this bridge.

It’s the world’s first steel shuttle bridge, and is just over 125 years old. The bridge (which like the river has many names) joins the posh town of Getxo with the port town of Portugalete. It was the brainchild of engineer Alberto de Palacio in the late 1880’s and built by Fernidad Arnodin, and took three years to build, opening in 1893.
According to the web site:
“The Hanging Bridge (Puente Colgante) was inaugurated on 28th July 1893, a shuttle linking the towns of Las Arenas, on the right bank of the Bilbao river, and Portugalete on the left bank. The massive iron structure, superb testimony to Vizcaya’s significant industrialization at the end of the 19th century, defying the day’s storm. Its 400,000 rivets on steel pieces and its 4 towers each 51 metres high – two on each side – resisting the gusts of wind, helped by 8 metal cables. A 160 metre long deck, towering 45 metres over the estuary, linking the two towns, symbolises the triumph of man and his technology over the adversity of nature and over the difficulty of such a grandiose construction project.” Source

All that seems to have changed is that they’ve enclosed the gondola’s passenger compartment and installed lifts at either ends. And gift shops.

Queueing for the lift to the gantry. Behind the pillars you can see one of the anchor points. There's two on each end, plus some to the side of the towers, sort of like guy-ropes on a tent.

For a few Euros you can take the lift up to the gantry. For a couple more Euros you can endure an excruciating audio tour. I’m not good with heights. I’ve been known to have trouble with high curbs. So as it was blowing a gale and threatening to hail, we went up.

Getxo is the posh town - it's on a hill.

The lift was glass-sided so that you could see that it wasn’t caged or anything – my vertigo cheerfully pointed out that I was leaning against the door and if the surly Basque lift-operator opened the door I’d just fall backwards until I hit a girder.

After an eternity we clunked to the top and got out. The whole gantry was meshed so I felt quite safe, even though I could see through the walkway to the gondola crossing below us. And yes, it started to rain and then hail. It only did this while we were up top. As soon as we got down the weather cleared and the rest of the day was blue skies and sunshine. I was tempted to buy another ticket to confirm the cause-and-effect.

The view from the top was great and while you could walk the whole length, there was little point as the other lift was shut and I did well enough to walk a third of the way out. The bridge is sturdy and barely moved in the wind. We watched the gondola cross several times, suspended from what is effectively the undercarriage of a train. It was very fascinating.

We’d already ridden the gondola over the river and knew that it was incredibly sturdy. The cables are fixed in diagonals so there’s little swaying and you barely notice the movement, just a slight jolt when you stop at the other side.

. Is it me, or is this totally Luke's landspeeder from Star Wars?

This is possibly one of the best bits of industrial archaeology I’ve visited and well deserved of its World Heritage status. If you’re ever in Bilbao, take the metro up to Portugalete, or the train to Getxo and take a look. Just don’t bother with the audio guide.