Portugal · 50 years of Brücke des 25. Aprils

The Ponte 25 de Abril spans the wide estuary of the Tejo between the Lissabon district of Alcântara and the city of Almada on the southern bank of the river. Before its construction, traffic between Lissabon and the Setúbal Peninsula was handled mainly by ferries. The new road connection facilitated journeys to southern Portugal and at the same time changed the development of the suburbs on the southern bank.

The steel suspension bridge was opened on 6 August 1966. Its construction, with tall lattice towers, a widely spanning main cable and red paint, has shaped the appearance of the Tejo estuary ever since. A railway line was later established beneath the roadway and began operating in 1999. This gave rail traffic its first direct crossing of the Tejo in this area.

The structure originally bore the name Ponte Salazar. António de Oliveira Salazar was Portugal’s head of government from 1932 to 1968 and the central political figure of the authoritarian Estado Novo. After the Carnation Revolution (Nelkenrevolution), the bridge was renamed after the date of the overthrow, 25 April 1974. On that day, a movement supported by parts of the military abolished the regime almost without armed confrontations. This was followed by the transition to parliamentary democracy, free elections and the decolonization of the remaining Portuguese colonies in Africa.

The present name therefore directly connects the structure with Portugal’s change of political system. At the same time, the bridge represents the expansion of transport routes and the closer connection between the capital and the southern bank. As a widely recognizable part of the Lissabon cityscape and as the bearer of a historically charged name, it was suitable as a national coin motif.