Choluteca Bridge, or Carías Bridge and Old Choluteca Bridge, (Spanish: Puente de Choluteca), is a suspension bridge located in the city of Choluteca, Honduras. It is an emblem of the nation and the city where it is located. It was built between 1935 and 1937 by the

United States Army Corps of Engineers , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...

using US and Honduran capital for the construction of the road named

Panamericana The Pan-American Highway (french: (Auto)route panaméricaine/transaméricaine; pt, Rodovia/Auto-estrada Pan-americana; es, Autopista/Carretera/Ruta Panamericana) is a network of roads stretching across the Americas and measuring about in to ...

. The bridge's importance is not simply a matter of size. The Choluteca Bridge is 300 meters long, but it isn't the longest in the country or even in the city—there is another bridge in Choluteca called The Bridge of the Rising Sun (New Choluteca Bridge), which is 484 meters long. Built during the reign of Tiburcio Carias Andino, with the co-operation of the government of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

during the time when it was performed, it is considered to be one of the greatest works of

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...

in the country. The bridge is one of the few replicas of the

Golden Gate Bridge The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The structure links the U.S. city of San Francisco, California—the northern tip of the San Francisco P ...

that still exists, and it controls the flow of traffic from Guatemala to

Panamá Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by C ...

. Partially destroyed by

Hurricane Mitch Hurricane Mitch is the second-deadliest Atlantic hurricane on record, causing over 11,000 fatalities in Central America in 1998, including approximately 7,000 in Honduras and 3,800 in Nicaragua due to cataclysmic flooding from the slow motion ...

in 1998, the bridge was remodelled in the year 2002 under the government of

Ricardo Maduro Ricardo Rodolfo Maduro Joest (born 20 April 1946 in Panama) is a Honduran politician who served as President of Honduras from 2002 to 2006. A member of the National Party, Maduro was previously chairman of the Central Bank of Honduras. He gra ...

. The old bridge is still used for light traffic.

New Choluteca Bridge

In the 1990s, a new bypass road and a second bridge was planned for the city. The new Choluteca Bridge, also known as the Bridge of Rising Sun (Spanish: Puente Sol Naciente), was built by

Hazama Ando , is one of the 10 biggest construction companies in Japan. It was launched in 2013 by the merger of the Hazama Corporation and Ando Corporation. It has overseas offices in Asia, especially in the South Asian countries like Nepal, as well as in th ...

Corporation between 1996 and 1998 and became the largest bridge constructed by a Japanese company in

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived ...

. In the same year that the bridge was commissioned for use, Honduras was hit by

, which caused considerable damage to the nation and its infrastructure. Many bridges, including the old bridge, were damaged while some were destroyed, but the new Choluteca Bridge survived with minor damage. While the bridge itself was in near perfect condition, the roads on either end of the bridge had completely vanished, leaving no visible trace of their prior existence. At this time, the Choluteca River, which is over at the bridge, had carved itself a new channel during the massive flooding caused by the hurricane. It no longer flowed beneath the bridge, which now spanned dry ground. The bridge quickly became known as “The Bridge to Nowhere”. In 2003, the bridge was reconnected to the highway.

References

{{Reflist Bridges in Central America