Most people experience visual déjà vu the first time they clap eyes on the bombastic suspension bridge Ponte 25 de Abril. It’s hardly surprising given that it’s the spitting image of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, was constructed by the same company in 1966 and, at 2.27km, is almost as long.
The thundering bridge dwarfs Lisbon’s docks and is dazzling when illuminated by night. It was called Ponte Salazar until the 1974 Revolution of the Carnations, when a demonstrator removed the ‘Salazar’ and daubed ‘25 de Abril’ in its place. The name stuck, the dictatorship crumbled.
