Ponte Dom Luiz I
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The city of Porto is located on the northern bank of one of the
major rivers of the Iberian peninsula: the Douro. On the opposite side of the
river the city of Vila Nova de Gaia is situated. Of course the river and
the connections between both cities across it, are of major importance for both
cities. The most famous and oldest still existing bridges are the Ponte Maria
Pia, constructed by Gustave Eiffel for the railways and the Ponte Dom Luiz I,
designed by Teófilo Seyrig.
The latter has two decks of which the upper raises about 60 metres above the water
level. Of course plans were developed for tramlines crossing this bridge. From about 1895 until 1903 tramrails existed on the upper deck of the bridge. These were owned by the state (Ministério das Obras Públicas). Probably it was double track with a gauge of 90 cm. The "Caminho de Ferro Americano Praça da Batalha á Estação de Villa Nava de Gaya" had a concession to use this rails for trams with animal traction. It is not known if the line was ever exploited. On 28 October 1905 the electric tramlines on the upper deck were inaugurated. One line, later numbered 13, had Santo Ovídio as destination, the other line, went to Devesas and got the number 14. Only many years later this line was extended to Coimbroes. For a tramline on the lower deck, the number 15 was reserved, but this line was never realized. The tramcompany replaced the original illumination with gas-lights by electric-lights in 1908 on both decks of the bridge. The CCFP was also responsible for the power-supply and maintenance of the lights. The tramline on the bridge was original single track located at the
east side of the deck. In 1930 double track was installed. Only narrow cars
could be used on the bridge as the distance between the centres of the
tracks was 2.43 m. On the lower deck of the bridge never tramlines were realized, although a line was foreseen. From Infante via Ribeira to the bridge the infrastructure for this tramline was completed and retained for many years, but never used. In 1959 the tramlines across the bridge were replaced by trolleybuses. Not only on the upper deck, also on the lower deck trolleybuses appeared. But on both decks they did disappear again in 1993. A new chapter of trams on the Ponte Dom Luiz I is the construction of one of the "Metro" lines on the upper deck. This line was opened on 17 September 2005, 99 years, 10 months and 20 days after the opening of the first electric tramlines on the bridge. |
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