Vertigo
February 12th, 2005, 08:35 PM
The wide Tagus river is bridged by the huge suspension bridge "Ponte de 25 Abril". Since the World Expo there's another, even longer bridge across the river, but the Ponte de 25 Abril will always remain one of the symbols of the city.
Since a couple of years you can not only cross the bridge by car, but also by train. A private company called Fertagus operates suburban services across it and the national railways now operate direct services to Faro in the south (in earlier times you had to take a ferry across the river before boarding a train to Faro).
I made a nice trip across the bridge by train, and back by ferry. In between I made a visit to the huge statue of Christ, on a hill near the bridge. From this hill you have a great view of both the bridge and Lisbon itself.
The bridge and the statue from the city:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/LISB01.jpg
The ride across the bridge is spectacular. Not only the part across the river, but also shortly before, where the bridge runs high above old city areas. Here you can see how "subtle" the bridge was fit into this area:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/LISB00.jpg
Walking to the statue:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/LISB02.jpg
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/LISB03.jpg
The view on the bridge....
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/LISB04.jpg
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/LISB05.jpg
...and the city:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/LISB06.jpg
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/LISB13.jpg
Some rainclouds heading our way:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/LISB07.jpg
The city centre. In the upper right hand corner you can see a small part of the new bridge:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/LISB08.jpg
Taking pics of the statue itself was more difficult because it was directly into the sun:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/LISB09.jpg
Constantly planes flew by at a low altitude. Lisbon's airport is located right in an urban area, not far from the city center. This means that planes are flying across the city quite low. We had such an approach on the way towards Lisbon and it was quite spectacular. While visiting the statue "our" KLM plane came flying by:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/LISB10.jpg
On the ferry on the way back:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/LISB11.jpg
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/LISB12.jpg
Since a couple of years you can not only cross the bridge by car, but also by train. A private company called Fertagus operates suburban services across it and the national railways now operate direct services to Faro in the south (in earlier times you had to take a ferry across the river before boarding a train to Faro).
I made a nice trip across the bridge by train, and back by ferry. In between I made a visit to the huge statue of Christ, on a hill near the bridge. From this hill you have a great view of both the bridge and Lisbon itself.
The bridge and the statue from the city:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/LISB01.jpg
The ride across the bridge is spectacular. Not only the part across the river, but also shortly before, where the bridge runs high above old city areas. Here you can see how "subtle" the bridge was fit into this area:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/LISB00.jpg
Walking to the statue:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/LISB02.jpg
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/LISB03.jpg
The view on the bridge....
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/LISB04.jpg
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/LISB05.jpg
...and the city:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/LISB06.jpg
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/LISB13.jpg
Some rainclouds heading our way:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/LISB07.jpg
The city centre. In the upper right hand corner you can see a small part of the new bridge:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/LISB08.jpg
Taking pics of the statue itself was more difficult because it was directly into the sun:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/LISB09.jpg
Constantly planes flew by at a low altitude. Lisbon's airport is located right in an urban area, not far from the city center. This means that planes are flying across the city quite low. We had such an approach on the way towards Lisbon and it was quite spectacular. While visiting the statue "our" KLM plane came flying by:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/LISB10.jpg
On the ferry on the way back:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/LISB11.jpg
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/LISB12.jpg