The Río Piedras Bridge (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

: ''Puente de Río Piedras'') or Piedras River Bridge (''Puente del Río Piedras''), also designated as Bridge #3, is a historic 19th-century

barrel vault A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault, wagon vault or wagonhead vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve (or pair of curves, in the case of a pointed barrel vault) along a given distance. The curves are ...

bridge located in the former town of

Río Piedras Rio or Río is the Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Maltese word for "river". When spoken on its own, the word often means Rio de Janeiro, a major city in Brazil. Rio or Río may also refer to: Geography Brazil * Rio de Janeiro * Rio do Sul, a ...

, today part of the city of

San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the jur ...

, that spans across the Piedras River. The bridge was built in 1853 as part of the development of the Carretera Central that linked San Juan to Ponce, making it the oldest still-existing bridge of said route. Today the bridge is still stable and usable, and it can be found near the entrance of the University of Puerto Rico Botanical Garden. It was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1995 and it is considered to be the best-preserved example of a Spanish masonry arch bridge anywhere in Puerto Rico and the United States.

Gallery

File:Puente Rio Piedras - San Juan Puerto Rico.jpg, The bridge in 2017. File:Puente Rio Piedras rededication plaque - San Juan Puerto Rico.jpg, Bridge rededication plaque. File:Rio-Piedras-Bridge.jpg, The bridge in 1911.

References

Bridges completed in 1853 Historic American Engineering Record in Puerto Rico National Register of Historic Places in San Juan, Puerto Rico Road bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Puerto Rico Transportation in San Juan, Puerto Rico 1853 establishments in Puerto Rico {{PuertoRico-NRHP-stub

Gallery

See also

References