Puente Nuevo

The Puente Nuevo is the newest and largest of three bridges that span the 120-metre (390 ft)-deep chasm that carries the Guadalevín River and divides the city of Ronda in southern Spain.

Puente Nuevo

Carries                       Vehicular traffic

Crosses                      Guadalevín River in El Tajo canyon

Locale                        Ronda, Spain

Material                     Stone

Number of spans         3

Opened                      1751

The architect was José Martin de Aldehuela, who died in Málaga in 1802. The chief builder was Juan Antonio Díaz Machuca.

The bridge was built in 1751 and took a total of 42 years to build. There is a chamber beneath the central arch that was used for a variety of purposes, including as a prison. During the civil war (1936 to 1939), both sides allegedly used the prison as a torture chamber for captured opponents, killing some by throwing them from the windows to the rocks below at the bottom of the El Tajo canyon. One enters the chamber, where there is an exhibition describing the bridge's history and construction, via a square building that was once the guard-house.

The bridge is supposedly one of the most photographed structures in Spain.