The bridge that outsmarted the river

The Vizcaya Bridge, officially known as a transporter bridge, sits at the mouth of the Nervion River in Spain, linking Portugalete and Las Arenas. Locally named Puente Colgante, it outsmarted a problem that has challenged bridge designers: how to connect two towns on either side of a river while letting ships pass. It's the world's oldest transporter bridge, built in 1893, designed by Alberto Palacio, one of Gustave Eiffel's disciples. The engineer Ferdinand Joseph Arnodin was in charge, and Santos Lopez de Letona financed it.

Palacio wanted to create a bridge that could transport passengers and cargo, and allow ships to go through. His solution was a shuttle bridge, an adequate and cost-effective design. The bridge's operation is still in use today, transporting six cars and several dozen passengers in one and a half minutes, every 8 minutes during the day. UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site in 2006, and it's the only monument in Spain's Industrial Heritage category.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons