El Puente de la Pólvora (
Spanish for the Black-powder Bridge) was a metallic bridge with stone abutments spanning the
Segura River. The structure was completed with five stone arches on the left side of the bridge designed to span the river flood plain. Built between 1870 and 1877 in the vicinity of
Javalí Viejo and
Alcantarilla
Alcantarilla () is a town and municipality in southeastern Spain, in the Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia. The town is only 7 km away from the capital of the region, the city of Murcia, and one of its peculiarities is that it is c ...
, in the
Región de Murcia
The Region of Murcia (, ; es, Región de Murcia ), is an autonomous community of Spain located in the southeastern part of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Mediterranean coast. The region is in area and had a population of 1,511,251 as at the st ...
(
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
), the bridge was designed by the civil engineers Manuel Pardo Sánchez-Salvador (for the stone structure) and José Caunedo Sánchez (for the metallic structure). Both structures were built by Pedro Díaz Sánchez y Francisco Peña y Baquero respectively.
The bridge was originally built to allow the transit of black powder convoys arriving from the neighbouring military factory and heading to the
Port of Cartagena. Prior to the construction of the bridge, these dangerous convoys had to pass periodically through the city of
Murcia in order to cross the river by the only existing bridge over the Segura in the vicinity:
El Puente de los Peligros. Until the construction of the bridge, the inhabitants of
Murcia complained repeatedly about the risk that those black powder transports meant for the city.
In 1975, the metallic structure was dismantled and sold as scrap due to the construction, in 1974, of a
reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having hig ...
bridge few meters upstream.
[Sánchez, p.117] Later on, the right abutment was demolished during the channelling of the river. The left abutment and the five stone arches still remain in place and are currently used to access the river channelling service road.
[Gimeno & Gutiérrez, p.81]
References
Bibliography
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Puente de la Polvora
Bridges in Murcia