A historic bridge built between 1790 and 1800 that became buried under Guadalajara’s urban sprawl has been carefully restored over the past five years, and last week opened to the public as an underground museum.
The bridge, known as the Puente de Las Damas (Ladies’ Bridge), was constructed over the Arenal tributary that flowed into the San Juan de Dios River, upon whose banks the city was founded. The river was eventually converted into a sewer line running under the Calzada Independencia.
Speaking at the inauguration of the museum on March 25, Jalisco Government Secretary Enrique Ibarra Pedroza said the 50-meter-long bridge linked the Creole and mestiza sector of Guadalajara with the indigenous Mexicaltzingo neighborhood, calling it “a bridge that united rather than divided the city, ending marginalization.”
According to one legend, the bridge got its name from upper-class women who used to cross into the indigenous neighborhood to hire domestic servants to work in their homes.
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