Ponte De Abril Bridge, Lisbon

The Bridge That Keeps Getting Mistaken for San Francisco

The confusion is understandable. Both are suspension bridges with red-painted steel towers, dramatic towers rising from the water, long main spans, and an industrial grace that photographs nearly identically from the right angle. The reason they look alike is that the same firm built both: the American Bridge Company, working with US Steel, designed the Ponte 25 de Abril and the Golden Gate. The Lisbon bridge opened in 1966 – the Golden Gate was 1937, not, as the Lisbon bridge plaques suggest, 1967. The detail matters mainly because the resemblance is not coincidence but the direct result of one company’s design language applied to two different rivers on two different continents.

The bridge was called Ponte Salazar after the Portuguese dictator until April 25, 1974, when a military coup ended forty years of authoritarian rule in an event known as the Carnation Revolution. By that evening, Lisbon’s citizens were placing carnations in the gun barrels of soldiers who refused to fire on the crowds. The bridge was renamed the following day to mark the date.

It carries about 150,000 vehicles per day across a main span of 1,013 metres, with towers standing 190 metres above the Tagus. In 1999 a second deck was added below the road, carrying the Fertagus suburban railway to the south bank – which makes it one of the relatively few bridges in the world that handles both rail and road traffic on separate decks simultaneously.

Seeing the Bridge

The best views are from Alcantara on the north bank, looking south across the river. The LX Factory, a former industrial complex repurposed as a market and creative hub immediately adjacent to the bridge’s north approach, makes the detour worth it in its own right. Sunday is the main market day, when the place fills with designers, food vendors, and a crowd that is significantly more interesting than the one on Ocean Drive in Lisbon’s tourist centre.

On the south bank, the Cristo Rei statue stands directly across from the bridge approach. Built in 1959 and inspired by Christ the Redeemer in Rio, it offers the best available vantage point for photographing the bridge: a lift and staircase bring you to the base of the statue, and from there the panorama back to Lisbon with the bridge in the foreground is one of the more arresting city views in Portugal.

The Pilar 7 visitor centre sits on the north riverbank directly below one of the bridge’s main pillars. Admission is 6 euros (free with the Lisboa Card). The experience puts you 80 metres above the ground at the top of the pillar, with views over the river and city. Note that the lift has been intermittently out of service; when it is down, you reach the viewpoint via 372 stairs. Check the current status before visiting. The experience is industrial rather than pastoral – you are inside a bridge support, not on a scenic overlook – and it is considerably more interesting than it sounds for anyone who finds structural engineering even mildly compelling.

Lisbon Beyond the Bridge

Belem, 4 kilometres west along the waterfront, holds the Jeronimos Monastery (completed 1601, Manueline Gothic, UNESCO listed) and the Tower of Belem. The monastery’s interior contains the tombs of Vasco da Gama and Luis de Camoes, Portugal’s national poet. The cloisters rank among the finest examples of Manueline stone carving anywhere, combining nautical motifs, armillary spheres, and organic forms in ways that don’t follow any other architectural tradition.

Two hundred metres from the monastery, the Antiga Confeitaria de Belem has been making pasteis de nata from the same recipe since 1837. The original formula belongs to the monks of Jeronimos, who sold it to the bakery when the liberal reforms of the 1820s dissolved the monasteries. The version served here – warm, with cinnamon and powdered sugar on top – is the standard against which every other custard tart in Portugal is measured. You will wait in a short queue. It is worth it.

Tram 15E connects central Lisbon (Praca da Figueira) to Belem directly, about 20 minutes.