The History of the Bridge


In 1905 the Ferrocarril del Sud was authorised to build a bridge which would allow –through an electric powered gondola -the traffic of cars and people. The Bridge was donated by the Ferrocarril del Sud to the National Government. The different parts of the bridge’s metallic structure, which is almost 50 metres high, were built in England and were later assembled in Buenos Aires. The foundations meant to hold the structure were laid by the Dirección Nacional de Construcciones Portuarias. Eight concrete cylinders were buried 24 metres deep at the bottom of the Riachuelo. Each cylinder is 4 metres in diameter and can withstand a 1000 ton load.          
Nine years later the works were inaugurated. The gondola crossed the river in less than half an hour thanks to a system of wires and pulleys controlled from the booth located in Almirante Brown Ave.
Between the 19th and 20th centuries 20 similar transporter bridges were erected in port areas worldwide. Only 8 of them still stand, including the Nicolás Avellaneda.



Isla Maciel


The Maciel neighbourhood was founded in 1887, two years after the Partido de Avellaneda was founded, and previous to the foundation of Dock Sud, which ended up taking over it. At the beginning of the 20th century, the area was full of shipyards and cold storage plants, such as La Blanca, el Wilson or el Anglo.    

In 1907, part of the elite from La Boca decided to found an independent República de La Boca, which was formally established on December 13th of that year and had Roberto T. Hosking as president. The Isla Maciel (Maciel Island), an appendage of La Boca, was a place on the banks of the Arroyo Maciel (Maciel brook) where there were numerous areas of clear water and as much vegetation as that found in Tigre.     



La Boca neighbourhood


The neighbourhood began emerging around the first natural harbour in Buenos Aires from mid-19th century onwards. It was an area where Genoese sailors and port workers settled down during the great immigration wave that Argentina received from 1860 to 1930; thus, giving rise to a fraternal society which spoke the xeneixe (Genoese) dialect.        
The name is taken as an allusion to the location of the Riachuelo and its river mouth which flows into the Río de la Plata. In the year 1870 La Boca was granted the category of district by decree.