Maria Pia Bridge
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Maria Pia bridge (Ponte Maria Pia) is a railway bridge built in 1877 by Gustave Eiffel in Porto, Portugal. Built of iron, it carries the railway line to Lisbon for 353m across the River Douro at a height of 60m.
It was built to avoid a 12 km detour and started on 5 January 1876 and completed on 4 November 1877). At that time it had the longest span in the world, the previous record holder, at 156m, being the Eads Bridge over the Mississippi at St Louis. The bridge was opened by the king of Portugal and named after his queen Maria Pia.
In 1991 the bridge was superseded by the new St John bridge, designed by engineer Edgar Cardoso.af:Maria Pia-brug de:Ponte Maria Pia fr:Viaduc Maria Pia nl:Maria Pia-brug pl:Most Maria Pia pt:Ponte de D. Maria Pia
