Arenas Bridge

18.134880555556 - 66.138119444444Koordinaten: 18 ° 8 ' 5.6 "N, 66 ° 8' 17.2 " W

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The Arenas Bridge in Cayey, Puerto Rico, is a truss steel bridge, which was built in 1894 as Puente Rio La Plata and the longest was built during the Spanish colonial period in Puerto Rico bridge. She crossed the Rio de la Plata, the longest river on the island. The National Park Service designated the bridge as "the most important metal bridge in Puerto Rico from the time ". The building is still used.

The bridge was built as part of the Carretera Central, the first highway through the central mountains of Puerto Rico. The 134 km long highway connecting San Juan to the port city of Ponce and was largely completed in 1886, with some bridges built only temporarily and only 13 bridges were permanent. The construction of the final Arenas Bridge in 1894, four years before the completion of the Carretera Central 1898.

Due to the rarity of the raw material iron in Puerto Rico, there were no steel production plants on the island, so that such structures were produced like this overseas and then shipped in parts to Puerto Rico. A Trade Representative of the Spanish Government in Paris gained international bids, mostly by British and Belgian companies that were interested in the construction of bridges in the Spanish colonies. The Arenas Bridge was pre-produced by the Belgian company Nicrisse and Decluve and then transported by steamship Teutonia to Puerto Rico.

An alternative to the construction of a truss bridge would have been a suspension bridge, which was a well-developed technology already before the construction of the bridge in order to achieve longer spans. In Puerto Rico it was not during the colonial period, the need to build longer spans, because there is no extra-wide rivers and gorges on the island. The chief engineer Manuel Sanchez Nuñez decided that suspension bridges are inappropriate for the tropical climate and was torn down in 1857 a pre-built suspension bridge in Caguas. Accordingly, suspension bridges were not very common in Puerto Rico and even in today's time there are probably only three such buildings on the island, including a modern footbridge in Bayamón.

It was planned the building of Mariano Sychar. For the steel bridge construction costs have been agreed by 56 221 pesos, the steel weight was configured with 23,623 pounds. Stone abutments should bear the bridge were built under the supervision of José Roque- Paniagua, assembly of bridge oversaw the engineer Julio Larrinaga.

During the Spanish- American War, the armed forces of the United States from the south invaded the north of the Central Carretara ago. Another bridge was destroyed by the Spaniards in order to slow the advance of U.S. troops, the Arenas Bridge was spared.