<p>The 25 de Abril Bridge (Ponte 25 de Abril "25th of April Bridge",   is a suspension bridge connecting the city of Lisbon, capital of Portugal, to the municipality of Almada on the left (south) bank of the Tejo river. It was inaugurated on August 6, 1966 and a train platform was added in 1999. Because it is a suspension bridge and has similar colouring, it is often compared to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, USA. In fact, it was built by the same company (American Bridge Company) that constructed the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and not the Golden Gate, also explaining its similarity in design. With a total length of 2,277 m, it is the 23rd largest suspension bridge in the world. The upper deck carries six car lanes, while the lower deck carries two train tracks. Until 1974, the bridge was named Salazar Bridge (Ponte Salazar).
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From the late 19th century there had been proposals to build a bridge for Lisbon. In 1929 the idea advanced as a Portuguese engineer and entrepreneur, António Bello requested a Government concession for a railway crossing between Lisbon and Montijo (where the Vasco da Gama Bridge, the second bridge serving Lisbon, was later built in 1998). As a result, the Minister of Public Works, Duarte Pacheco, created a commission in 1933 to analyse the request. The commission reported in 1934, and proposed building a road and rail bridge. Bids were obtained. However, this proposal was subsequently put aside in favour of a bridge crossing the river at Vila Franca de Xira, 35 km north of Lisbon.
In 1953 a new Government commission started working and recommended building the bridge in 1958, choosing the southern anchor point adjacent to the recently built monument to Christ the King (Cristo-Rei). In 1959 the international invitation to tender for the project received four bids. In 1960 the winner was announced as a consortium headed by the United States Steel Export Company, which had submitted a bid in 1935.
Construction began on 5 November 1962. Forty-five months later (six months ahead of schedule) the bridge was inaugurated on 6 August 1966. Presiding at the ceremony was the President of Portugal, Admiral Américo Thomaz. Also present were the Prime-Minister, António de Oliveira Salazar, and the Patriarch of Lisbon, Cardinal Manuel Gonçalves Cerejeira. The bridge was named Salazar Bridge (Ponte Salazar), in honour of the Prime Minister.
United States Steel International, Inc. based in New York, was prime contractor for the bridge. Morrison-Knudsen of Portugal, Ltd., an American firm based in Boise, Idaho was U.S. Steel's principle associate. Morrison-Knudsen had previously worked on the San Francisco Bay Bridge. Steinman, Boynton, Gronquist and London of New York, and Tudor Engineering Company of San Francisco designed the bridge. The steel was imported from the USA. Four workers lost their lives, out of a total of 3,000 who worked on the site. Construction took a total of 2,185,000 man-hours of work. The total cost of the bridge came to 2,200,000,000 Portuguese escudos, or US$ 32 million (US $225 million in 2011 adjusted for inflation).
Soon after the Carnation Revolution in 1974, the bridge was renamed the 25 de Abril Bridge, the day the revolution had occurred. A symbol of those times was captured on film, with citizens removing the big "Salazar" brass sign from one of the main pillars of the bridge and painting a provisional "25 de Abril" in its place.
</p><p>LISBON CAPITAL CITY OF PORTUGAL OCTOBER 2013
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