San Juanico Bridge in the Philippines

 


Let's talk about the Inauguration of the San Juanico Bridge which was the longest bridge in the Philippines which happened 2nd of July 1973.

 The 2.16-kilometer long San Juanico Bridge, the longest bridge in the Philippines spans through a body of sea water between the islands of Samar and Leyte in the Visayas.

 The San Juanico Bridge is part of the Pan-Philippine Highway (also known as the Maharlika Highway). Its longest length is a steel girder viaduct built on reinforced concrete piers, and its main span is of an arch-shaped truss design. The bridge has 43 spans and medium size boats can pass beneath its large main arch, the top of which rises 41 meters above the sea.

 The San Juanico Bridge is a project under the Marcos administration. Its construction with cost of around 22 million-dollar was contracted to the Construction and Development Corporation of the Philippines (now the Philippine National Construction Corporation), together with Japanese engineers who helped conducting studies and design of the actual project.

 Construction began in 1969 over San Juanico Strait from Cabalawan, Tacloban City in Leyte to the municipality of Santa Rita in Samar. The San Juanico Strait (Filipino: Kipot ng San Juanico) is a narrow strait in the Eastern Visayan region in the Philippines. This strait separates the islands of Samar and Leyte and connects the Carigara Bay (Samar Sea) with the San Pedro Bay (Leyte Gulf). The San Juanico Strait is about 38 kilometres and its narrowest point, from point A of Samar to Point B of Leyte where the San Juanico Bridge is standing is only 2 kilometers wide.

 It was believed that the bridge was constructed as a gift from the then President Ferdinand Marcos to his wife the first lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos. This is because the former Fist Lady Madame Imelda hails from Leyte and all the grand infrastructure will then favor her home province of Leyte. Imelda wanted to show her people how Pres. Marcos loved her with the construction of the longest bridge in the Philippines that will connect Leyte and Samar.

 


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