Although the Amazon River stretches from the Andes to the Atlantic Ocean through many South American countries, no bridge has been built across the river.
Located in South America, the Amazon River is one of the longest rivers in the world. The title “its” has not been recognized by the world, although a group of Brazilian and Peruvian scientists once announced that the Amazon River is 6,800km long, 105km longer than the Nile (6,695km), according to National Geographic. in 2007.
The upstream of the Amazon remains a mystery to scientists. (Photo: Pinterest).
The Amazon River has a basin that flows through a vast jungle, with breathtaking waterfalls or the world’s largest freshwater dolphin… However, what makes this river most memorable is the what it doesn’t have: a bridge.
Starting from the upper reaches of the Andes to the Atlantic Ocean, the Amazon is the longest river in the world without a bridge . The 25 million people who live by the river, from remote villages to bustling cities in Brazil, Peru or Colombia, all have one thing in common: to cross the river, they have to take a boat or catch a ferry .
There is no road across the Amazon, its basin is so large that it almost splits South America in half. (Photo: Pinterest).
Throughout its length, the Amazon is nowhere too narrow or too wide to bridge – during the dry season. But during the rainy season, the river rises more than 9 meters, and sections of the river 4.8km wide can turn to 48km in a few weeks. The soft alluvial layer on both sides of the river is constantly eroding, and the riverbed is often filled with rubble – including floating patches of forest called matupáscó, sometimes up to 4 hectares wide. Amazon rainy season really brings nightmares for construction engineers.
However, the real reason for the absence of bridges is simple: The Amazon Basin has very few roads to connect with. Apart from a few large cities, the dense forests are sparsely populated and the river itself is a highway for the people of the region. Macapá, located on the northern bank of the Amazon River Delta, is a city of half a million people, but with no road connection to the rest of Brazil. If you rent a car there, the only direction you can drive is north, to the French overseas territory of Guiana.
Macapá’s docks are always packed with ferries. (Photo: AP).
In recent years, waterway traffic between Manaus, Brazil and the nearby town of Iranduba has been congested with crowded ferries. Ferry tickets cost about 30 USD per passenger.
In 2010, the Brazilian government built a cable-stayed bridge connecting the two cities. Technically, this bridge does not cross the main stream of the Amazon but crosses one of its largest tributaries, the Rio Negro. Therefore, this is the first bridge of the Amazon river system, people are very happy when this work is inaugurated. However, environmentalists are not sympathetic to Manaus’s new bridge or highway project, because these constructions are the first step in developing the Amazon – along with deforestation.