PUENTE DE LAS AMÉRICAS
The Bridge of the Americas unites North and South America, separated by the canal. It's best seen from the Causeway. With the creation of the inter-oceanic waterway, the country was divided in two, and the question of transport from one bank to the other arose for a long time. People used small boats, until the arrival of the Amador and Roosevelt ferries in 1931. In 1942, a third ferry and a movable bridge were put into service to cope with the comings and goings of American servicemen during the Second World War. It wasn't until 1955 that the American authorities undertook to build an arch bridge, 118 metres high and 1.6 km long, which was finally inaugurated on October 12, 1962. Sixty years on, three other projects have been completed, one of which is still in progress.
Endless traffic jams prompted the creation of a second bridge over the canal, the Puente Centenario (Centenary Bridge), next to the village of Paraíso to the north, inaugurated in 2004. By 2022-23, a bridge was also under construction to link the capital and the western zone of the canal beyond the Bridge of the Americas. This will be the fourth bridge to cross the canal! Near Colón, the Atlantic Bridge (Puente Atlántico) has been completed and will be inaugurated in August 2019. This is one of the longest cable-stayed concrete bridges in the world, and the work was partly undertaken by Vinci Constructions Grands Projets.
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