The Bridge, the Statue and the River

Lisbon Series - Part 1

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There is a moment, arriving in Lisbon harbor, when you look across the Tagus and think: that is the Golden Gate Bridge. But it is not. The resemblance is so uncanny that it stops you every time ─ the same rust-red suspension towers, the same dramatic drop to the water, the same feel of something enormous held up by something impossibly slim.

I took this from a boat at dusk. The light was doing everything right and that line that divides the sea and the sky almost disappeared.

The Ponte 25 de Abril was completed in 1966, by the same American company that built the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge. For the first eight years of its life it was called the Salazar Bridge, after Portugal’s dictator. Then, on the 25th of April 1974, the Carnation Revolution overthrew the regime in a single orning and the bridge was renamed very quickly. The date is still the most important in modern Portuguese history.

On the south bank, looking back at the city, the statue of Cristo Rei stands with arms outstretched ─ a direct homage to Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer, built after Portugal’s Cardinal Patriarch visited Brazil in 1934 and came back wanting one for Lisbon. It was inaugurated in 1959. From the viewing platform at its feet, the whole of Lisbon and the Tagus estuary spread out below you.

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3 things you probably didn’t know about Lisbon:

1. The bridge has two decks. The top carries six lanes of road traffic. The bottom, finished in 1999, carries a railway line. From a distance you can’t see the trains at all ─ they appear from nowhere on the waterline.

2. The Carnation Revolution was announced over the radio using a specific song as a signal. Soldiers who heard Grândola, Vila Morena by Zeca Afonso on the radio at 12:25 am knew it was time to move. The song had been banned by the dictatorship. Its first broadcast in years was the revolution beginning.

3. Cristo Rei was built partly as a vow of thanks. Portugal stayed out of World War II, and the bishops made a public promise that if the country was spared, they would build a monument to Christ. It took fifteen years to actually do it, but they kept their word.

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Lisbon Quiz — Bridge & Statue edition

Can you get all 5?

1. What was the Ponte 25 de Abril originally called?

2. Which city’s famous landmark directly inspired the Cristo Rei statue?

3. What song signaled the start of the Carnation Revolution?

4. In what year was the second deck added to the bridge?

5. On which bank of the Tagus does Cristo Rei stand?

(scroll for answers)

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Answers:

1. Ponte Salazar

2. Rio de Janeiro (Christ the Redeemer)

3. Grândola, Vila Morena

4. 1999

5. The south bank (Almada)

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