Puente de Fierro, Railway bridge museum in San Cristóbal Ecatepec, Mexico.
The Puente de Fierro is a former railway bridge pair in the San Juan Alcahuacan district of San Cristóbal Ecatepec in the state of Mexico, now serving as a museum and cultural space. The two parallel metal structures stand at the crossing of Via Morelos and Primero de Mayo Avenue and together form a protected heritage site.
The bridges were built in 1870 as part of the drainage system for the Valley of Mexico to reduce flood risk for Mexico City. In 2000 the site was repurposed as a museum and opened for exhibitions and educational programs under the guidance of Manuel Bueno Herrera.
Nowadays the iron spans serve as exhibition halls for contemporary art and regularly invite the public to join workshops and cultural events. The metal framework connects technical heritage with local creativity and lets visitors experience old engineering skills in a new setting.
The site is located in a residential area and is easily reachable on foot or by bicycle when the weather is clear. Information panels on site deepen the visit and museum guides offer explanations about the technical construction when needed.
A restoration in 2020 showed that the metal of the bridges was most likely manufactured in Mexico itself and not imported from Europe as long assumed. This discovery sheds new light on the technical independence of Mexican workshops in the early 20th century.
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