The story of Luiz I Bridge

The iron giant in front of you carries traffic on two levels. When it was built, its 172-metre arch span was the longest of its type in the world. In 1879 Gustave Eiffel proposed a bridge here with a single high deck, but the fast-growing city needed more, so a competition in 1880 asked for a double-deck metal bridge.

The winner was the Belgian Société de Willebroek, and the project's author was Théophile Seyrig, Eiffel's former partner, who had also designed the Maria Pia Bridge upriver; that is why the two look so alike. The upper deck opened in 1886 and the lower one the following year. At first, crossing cost a toll of 4 réis per person, until 1944, when the bridge became free.

Trams once rattled across the top, but today the upper level belongs to pedestrians and Metro line D, opened in 2005, while buses, taxis, cyclists and walkers use the lower level between the Ribeira and the Gaia wine lodges.