PUENTE DE LAS AMÉRICAS

The Bridge of the Americas unites North and South America. 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.

Since then, two other projects have been completed: the Centenary Bridge (Puente Centenario), near the village of Paraíso, inaugurated in 2004, and further north, near Colón, the Atlantic Bridge (Puente Atlántico), inaugurated in 2019. The latter is one of the longest cable-stayed concrete bridges in the world. Vinci Constructions Grands Projets was responsible for part of the work.

The interminable traffic jams at the western exit of the capital motivated the creation of a fourth bridge over the canal, not far from the Pont des Amériques. Work began in 2024 and should be completed before the end of the decade. This 965 m-long cable-stayed bridge, which is expected to benefit 2 million people, was originally planned to also allow the crossing of metro line 3, but the latter will ultimately pass through a tunnel under the canal!