25 de Abril Bridge Lisbon

The Ponte de 25 Abril or ‘25th of April Bridge’ was built between 1962 and 1966 in Lisbon, Portugal. The gravity-anchored, trussed and double decked suspension bridge crosses the Tagus river. It connects Portugal’s capital to the municipality of Almada on the left bank of the river, 70 meters above the water. The graceful bridge, which was originally called the Salazar Bridge, was renamed for the date to ‘25th of April Bridge’ after the 1974 Carnation Revolution which effectively changed Portugal into a democracy. As traffic increased between the two points well beyond predictions and has remained at maximum capacity, the four lane 2275 meter long bridge had to be widened and now features a six lane motorway on the upper platform (4 asphalt and 2 metallic). Also after a lot of extensive structural reinforcements, two train tracks were added on a lower platform in 1999.