Bridges over the Amazon
There aren’t any.
But what the Brazilians are doing is building bridges, both literally and metaphorically, with their northern and north eastern neighbours.
I’d like to be able to say that the Brazilians have commissioned Norman Foster to do a Millau, or that they’ve decided to emulate their own 13½ km bridge over Guanabara Bay, linking Rio with Niteroi, to connect Manaus, on the north bank of the Amazon with the rest of Brazil on the south.
But they haven’t, not yet at least.
Image caption: Millau Bridge over the Tarn in SW France (photo GM Williams)
What they have done over the last few years, in conjunction with their neighbours to the north and northwest, is to build bridges over those rivers which form the frontiers. Neighbours who have closer access to the Caribbean and Pacific. Closer access to their markets.
Bridges between Brazil and Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina have been in place for several decades, usually officially named after a president, and usually called The Friendship Bridge or some variation on that. A century ago, these would have been rail bridges, but today they’re building road bridges.
Last year they opened, in a rain soaked ceremony, the Ponte Takutu, a spanking new bridge linking Boa Vista and Manaus to Guyana. They also are in the early stages of building a bridge from Oiapoque to St Georges in French Guyane, scheduled for opening in 2010 - but I don’t think it will be... Technically neither of these two rivers is part of the Amazon river system anyway.
The projected route – and bridges – that would link Cruzeiro do Sul in Brazil’s wilderness-west with Pucallpa in Peru is likely to be a very long time coming. There’s far too much opposition from environmentalists.
But there’s been a bridge for a couple of years between Iñapari (Peru) and Assis (Brazil) over the Rio Acre. This is over in Peru’s eastern Amazon lowlands, right next the Bolivian border. And a hundred km. further along Brazil’s BR317, at Brasilea/Cobija you can walk for a beer across the bridge into Bolivia – there were no border checks when we last investigated.
I mention the latter because were planning a new escorted Discovery Journey this way next year, to be led we hope by our longest serving tour leader, Etienne Frans. Brochure due September 2010.
 So where’s the first place you can cross the Amazon proper by bridge? The Amazon becomes the Amazon at the confluence of the Marañon and Ucayali, in northern Peru. I count the Marañon as the major feeder of the Amazon – since it contributes most water at the confluence. So the first bridging point of the Amazon is Bagua Grande (Puente 24 de Julio), which is in northern Peru on the new paved road between Chiclayo (Pacific Coast) and Chachapoyas, Tarapoto and Yurimaguas.
However, sources in Peru (our good friend Liliana Merino) tell us that:
“el Amazonas nace como un pequeño torrente en el Nevado Mismi, en la provincia de Caylloma, en el departamento de Arequipa, Perú. El río Ucayali, el afluente más largo del Amazonas, nace precisamente en ese pequeño torrente.”
ie the Ucayali is longest feeder, I suspect possibly because it meanders more. So I wonder where the first bridging point really is. I’ve never been downstream on the Ucayali from Pucallpa, which itself is 4400 km from the mouth of the Amazon.
Anyone out there know?
CP (Caption for picture: Millau Bridge over the Tarn in SW France (photo GM Williams)
Posted: 23/07/2010 13:53:06 by
Chris Parrott | with 1 comments
Filed under: Assis, Bagua, Brasil, Brasilea, Brazil, Cobija, Francaise, French, Grande, Guyana, Guyane, Inambari, Maranon, Niteroi, Peru, Pucallpa, Ucayali, Amazon
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