Arganzuela Footbridge (Madrid)

Arganzuela Footbridge is located in Madrid, Community of Madrid, Spain. It crosses the Manzanares River and the Madrid Río park, linking the districts of Carabanchel and Arganzuela. It is located between the Toledo Bridge and the Prague Bridge.

It was designed by Dominique Perrault (France). Its construction began at the end of 2010 and it was inaugurated in March 2011. Perrault has participated in numerous urban transformation projects in Europe and Asia. In Madrid he had already left a sample of his style by designing the Caja Mágica, also on the edge of the Manzanares.

History and background

After the construction of Calle 30, the burying of the old Madrid ring road known as the M-30, the councillor of Carabanchel asked the mayor of Madrid, Alberto Ruiz Gallardón, for a monumental bridge that would link Carabanchel with the centre of Madrid.

The Arganzuela bridge is thus part of Madrid’s recent urban plan, called Madrid Río, a pedestrian and recreational area built between 2006 and 2011 on the banks of the Manzanares River, on the underground route of the M-30 ring road from the southern junction to the junction with the A-5.

In 2016, the project won the “Veronica Rudge Green Prize in Urban Design” from Harvard University for its design and social and cultural impact on the transformation of the river.

Its cost was about €13.6M.

Building works started in February 2010. The footbridge actually consists of two separate metal cones. The combined structure is 278 m long. Perrault employs plate rolling for the curved steel plates along the bridge span.

It was opened on 24 March 2011, although initially only for diurnal usage.