Puente Internacional de la Amistad

The Friendship Bridge crosses the Paraná River and links Ciudad del Este with Foz do Iguaçu, in Brazil. It is a reinforced concrete arch bridge 552.4 metres long and 78 metres high; the arch measures 303 metres according to Spanish Wikipedia, while the English version gives a span of 290 metres. The materials came from São Paulo, Volta Redonda and Rio de Janeiro. There were two inaugurations: a symbolic one, with the work unfinished, in September 1961, with presidents Juscelino Kubitschek and Alfredo Stroessner, and the official one on 27 March 1965. When it was completed in 1962 it held the world record for the longest span of a fixed-arch reinforced concrete bridge, until the Gladesville Bridge in Australia surpassed it in 1964. It boosted trade and the growth of Ciudad del Este.

The work drove the opening of the present PY02 route from Asunción and turned Ciudad del Este into a major urban centre and free-trade zone.