Manwel Dimech Bridge is a beam bridge at

St. Julian's Saint Julian's () is a town in the Eastern Region of Malta. As of 2020, its registered number of inhabitants stands at 13,792. It is situated along the coast, north of the country's capital, Valletta. It is known for tourism-oriented businesse ...

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

. It is named after

Manuel Dimech Emmanuel Giovanni Salvatore Pietro Dimech, also known as Manwel Dimech (25 December 1860 – 17 April 1921) was a Maltese socialist, philosopher, journalist, writer, poet and social revolutionary. Born in Valletta and brought up in extreme pover ...

and was officially inaugurated on 18 September 1971 by the Minister of Public Works, Lorry Sant. The bridge is approximately 130m long and 32m wide, and spans over Wied Għomor. It is part of

Mikiel Anton Vassalli Mikiel Anton Vassalli (5 March 1764 – 12 January 1829) was a Maltese writer, a philosopher, and a linguist who published important Maltese language books, including a Maltese-Italian dictionary, a Maltese grammar book, the first Protestant ...

Road (popularly known as Regional Road) just beyond the tunnels on the way to

Paceville Paceville ( sometimes abbreviated PV) is a district in St Julian's which is the main nightlife hub in Malta, being heavily populated with nightclubs, bars, strip clubs, pubs and restaurants. It is hence also known as 'Malta's Sin City'. Pacev ...

and St. Andrew's. A commemorative plaque close to the bridge reports that the construction of the bridge, the road and the tunnels were aided by the Chinese government. The tunnels are named after

Sun Yat-sen Sun Yat-senUsually known as Sun Zhongshan () in Chinese; also known by Names of Sun Yat-sen, several other names. (; 12 November 186612 March 1925) was a Chinese physician, revolutionary, statesman, and political philosopher who founded the Republ ...

, and the bridge on the other side of the tunnels is named after Ġużè Ellul Mercer. The bridge was thoroughly restored and reinforced in 2008. The bridge is notable for hosting a secret meeting in the middle of the night between the then Prime Minister of Malta Eddie Fenech Adami and delinquent "Żeppi l-Ħafi" (literally Żeppi the barefoot). During the meeting, the two discussed about whether Żeppi should be given an immunity, even though Żeppi had done serious crimes back then including attempted murder, cocaine trafficking and burglary. The pair also met at a horse stable.

References

Bridges completed in 1971 Bridges in Malta St. Julian's, Malta {{Europe-bridge-struct-stub