The bridges over the Douro at Porto

Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia face each other across a deep Douro gorge, and each crossing here was built because the one before it could no longer carry the load. The record runs from Eiffel's single-track iron arch of 1877, to the concrete arch that became the city's main road link, to the rail bridge that took over Eiffel's trains on the day it opened in 1991, to the upstream pair built to relieve traffic jams dating from the late 1980s.

Places in this collection

• Ponte de São João — The engineer Edgar Cardoso designed this railway bridge as the replacement for Eiffel's single-track Maria Pia, and construction started in…
• Ponte do Freixo — Of the bridges linking Porto to Vila Nova de Gaia, this one is the farthest upstream. It was built to ease the traffic jams on the Arrábida…
• Ponte da Arrábida — This 1963 crossing between Lordelo do Ouro e Massarelos and the Gaia bank carries the Via de Cintura Interna over the Douro. It was built w…
• Ponte de Dona Maria Pia — The first railway bridge to join the two banks of the Douro was built by Eiffel & Cª. of Paris between 5 January 1876 and 1 October 1877 an…

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