Cautín railway bridge, Railway bridge between Temuco and Padre Las Casas, Chile

The Cautín railway bridge is a 423-metre suspension bridge over the Cautín River, on the boundary between Temuco and Padre Las Casas. Its masonry piers carry metal structures made by Schneider-Creusot in France, and it is the only rail link between Temuco and Padre Las Casas stations toward the far south of Chile.

A French engineer designed this bridge in the late 1800s, and the steel parts were manufactured in France. The structure was built during the 1890s and completed near the end of that decade.

The bridge is part of the Ruta Patrimonial Huellas de Pablo Neruda, a heritage route inaugurated in Temuco in 2014 that lists the Cautín bridge among its sites. In 2018, when demolition was announced, students of the Universidad Autónoma de Chile and local organisations protested on the bridge to keep it standing.

The bridge lies on the boundary between Temuco and Padre Las Casas, and trains stopped crossing it in December 2017 after EFE halted traffic over the structure. Access to the deck is not open to visitors, so the span is seen from the riverbanks on either side. The Cautín can rise sharply after heavy rain, as in June 2018 when a red alert was declared in Temuco.

The bridge was included in Temuco's Ruta Patrimonial Huellas de Pablo Neruda, inaugurated in 2014. In 2018, when EFE planned to rebuild it, students and local organizations protested to keep the structure, and the demolition was suspended in favor of restoration.