General Rafael Urdaneta Bridge, Maracaibo -

Source: Commons.wikimedia.org

Talking about the history of my city and not mentioning this icon is not telling you the great history of my country, there are many things to show but I chose this one because it is the most important in every way.

This bridge owes its name to the hero who waged the battle for the freedom of Venezuela and was Zuliano, Rafel Urdaneta. Its construction was started by Dictator Marcos Pérez Jimenez, a General who ruled Venezuela and my mother told me that he was very strict, but he was the one who built the roads in the country and who is responsible for the construction of the bridge.

In 1962 (I was only 1 year old) the bridge was inaugurated by President Romulo Betancourt, since the dictator had been overthrown and accused of embezzlement of state funds and fled to Spain where he died only a few years ago.

Curiosities of this monument:

I clearly remember a trip that I made with my mother and my brothers in a small passenger boat that left the port of Maracaibo towards Cabimas, it was the only way to cross Lake Maracaibo to be connected with the other part of the country.

Every time my mom visited my grandmother in Bachaquero, a small oil town in the state, we did it by this only means. I get the smell of oil and the memory of the rockers drilling the ground to get the black gold.

They knocked down the bridge...

No, it was not a terrorist attack or a military attack, two years after the bridge was completed, an oil freighter, the Esso Maracaibo, in 1964, ran out of power and collided with the bridge pier, the famous pier 21.

I remember the impression of the people, commenting on the news that the television had given about the event. There were many deaths, cars plummeted free from above to the lake causing the death of many people passing by at the time.

Many deaths...

Many deaths have cost the creation of this monument, from the moment of its construction, where they say that several of the workers were walled up in tons of cement, in the crash of the tanker and the intentional suicides and in the accidents that are recorded in the newspapers about falls of buses and cars that are passing by.

I remember very well the news that caused commotion in the population of Maracaibo, a bus of the Expresos Maracaibo line, with 54 passengers fell into the lake from pile 21, the luggage bags were the lifesavers of the 12 people who survived the accident.

Suicides are common in pile 21...

Many suicides have been published in the city newspapers that for various reasons these people have made the determination to end their suffering here, pile 21 is the highest part of the monument, but death can occur from anywhere since it is very high and the waters are deep and have many currents.

Guinness record ...

Despite all the accidents that our beautiful bridge has had, there is good news, and that is that it entered the Guinness records as the longest concrete bridge in the world. This makes it a world wonder. It is 8.5 kilometers long and 270 thousand cubic meters of concrete were used.

I hope you have enjoyed this little journey through the history of our emblematic monument of the Bridge Over Lake Maracaibo, as we popularly call it the Maracuchos. This was an entry to my friend @galenkp's Weekend Engagement, week 118.

Weekend history lesson
Find a historical monument in your area, take a photo of it and write a minimum of 250 words about it, the history and meaning behind it.

searches:

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puente_General_Rafael_Urdaneta

https://www.globovision.com/article/los-accidentes-que-han-marcado-la-historia-del-puente-sobre-el-lago-de-maracaibo