“You only have to meet a heavily loaded truck on the way and you can feel it shudder,” says a resident of the city.
14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, Matanzas, 31 May 2025 — The Concordia Bridge over the Yumurí River, a link that connects a large part of the city of Matanzas with the Versalles neighborhood, is essential for vehicles and pedestrians traveling in both directions. Complaints on social media about its deterioration have escalated, prompting authorities to take action and announce repairs that have yet to begin and are expected to be superficial.
Under the scorching sun, a high school student walked along the structure this Friday, avoiding the cars traveling across the bridge built in 1878. The yellow tape blocking one of the pedestrian paths forces him to step down onto the roadway with its moving traffic or cross to the other side, where the sidewalk is also in poor condition. “I try to cross quickly because if the driver is distracted, you’ll get a scare,” the teenager, who makes the same trip every day, told 14ymedio.
After images of the structure, damaged by the passage of time and lack of investment, circulated widely online, the newspaper Girón attempted to quell rumors of a possible bridge collapse by announcing a restoration process. Guillermo López-Calleja Pérez, head of the Comprehensive Project Management Department of Empai Matanzas, emphasized that vehicular access would not be affected by the construction, but pedestrian access has been severely reduced, hampering traffic flow.
“Walking on the road is dangerous, as everything from bicycles to buses and trucks constantly circulates,” explains Ileana, a Versalles resident who also uses the road daily. “But if I take the pedestrian crossing, it seems like one of the planks forming the walkway could come loose at any moment,” she says, pointing to the metal structures covering part of the sidewalk, which tremble as soon as she steps on them.
The metal structure of the bridge, also known as Lacret Morlot, was cast in the United States, while its four cylindrical stone columns are the work of architect Pedro Celestino del Pandal. “It looks like they’ll only be doing a little work on the roadbed and the railings, which are about to fall off,” laments Ileana, who had hoped for a more extensive intervention on this symbol of the city of Matanzas. The saltpeter, combined with the passage of heavy vehicles and the negligence of the authorities, have seriously affected the structure.
“You only have to meet a heavily loaded truck on the route and you can feel it shudder,” the woman explains. “Many trailers loaded with merchandise from the port pass through here,” she notes, a movement of products that was unthinkable in the nineteenth-century when Concordia was founded. From the horse-drawn carriages, fruit carts, and the occasional war artillery, we have moved on to a more industrial use that has left its mark.
Cracks, accumulated rust, dead streetlights, and deteriorating pavement are just the most visible scars of this accumulated damage. Matanzas residents fear that the wounds left by time and neglect may become deeper and more dangerous.
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