Sunny Lisbon

The 25th of April bridge is one of the most relevant buildings in Lisbon landscape. Getting to know Lisbon involves getting to know the Tagus river and the Belém area so, given the bridge location, it’s kind of hard to miss it. As you can easy check, the bridge design is not the most original in the world, as it copies the Golden Gate Bridge (San Francisco, USA). The 25th of April bridge was open in August, 1966, almost 30 years after the original one. It was at the time, one of the longest suspension bridges in the world.

The bridge construction took place while Portugal was living in it’s fascist regime, and was originally named after the goverment leader, Oliveira Salazar. It’s initially plan also included a train line, but the project has stopped for many years, only being concluded in 1999 and finally Portugal was connect from north to south with a single train line. It was now possible to get to Algarve from the center of Lisbon without changing transportation. The bridge was the fuel that galvanized the growth of the south margin of the river, making one of the greatest suburbs of Lisbon city, where thousands of Lisbon workers live and sleep every day.

In 1974, the fascist regime was overthrown, in the 25th of April. Given the memory of the old regent, the bridge changed it’s name to 25th of April, to celebrate democracy and freedom.

Every year, in March, the bridge is used in the Lisbon Half-Marathon race. The event, starts on the south side of the bridge, it is open to everyone who wants to participate. It’s a great opportunity to cross the bridge of foot and take some great photos of the city. Meanwhile, if you are visiting the city in some other time of the year, you can always take the train back and forth to Pragal (the first stop on the south side) and enjoy the view. The price is something below 2€ for each journey.