The Maria Pia Bridge, a railway bridge completed in 1877, was built by Eiffel and Company. The company had been founded in 1868 by Gustave Eiffel and his German associate Théophile Seyrig. Seyrig later left to join the Belgian firm Société Willebroeck, based in Brussels, and with them he won the contract to build the Dom Luís I bridge, some 400 metres downstream, with a very similar design to that of the first bridge and against competition from his previous company. The second bridge was built between 1881 and 1886.
The Dom Luís I Bridge is still in use, but by 1991 the Maria Pia bridge had become unable to cope with the necessary volume of traffic and was replaced by the Ponte de São João (St. John's Bridge).
© Haydn Thompson 2020