The 1893 gondola
A car flying bank to bank for thirteen decades.
Ebaki โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Ebaki โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Niels Johannes โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Ebaki โ CC BY-SA 4.0
The gondola is the living original at a euro โ obligatory. The walkway adds vistas for engineering lovers, unsuited to open-height fearers. Ideal: gondola over, walkway back, Getxo lunch after.
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The Bizkaia Bridge fathered a genius idea: history's first transporter bridge (1893) โ instead of raising a road, Eiffel's disciple Alberto Palacio hung a gondola car flying between banks on cables from an iron frame 61 metres up, letting tall sails pass beneath and people cross above the water โ its offspring spread worldwide while the original kept working, crowned UNESCO's first Spanish industrial heritage. The gondola crossing costs about a euro every eight minutes, cars and bikes aboard โ genuine public transport for 130 years โ while the upper walkway tour by lift (higher ticket) walks you along the summit between the cables. At the river's mouth between Portugalete and elegant Getxo (metro, 20 minutes from the centre) โ a fine estuary half-day in itself: bridge, Getxo's mansion promenade, harbour fish.
A car flying bank to bank for thirteen decades.
The iron summit at 61 metres among the cables.
The estuary's mansion walk to close.
Barria Etorbidea 3, 48930 Getxo