New Delhi: The Amazon River in South America is one of the most famous rivers in the world. It is the largest river when it comes to discharge volume of water and one of the longest river systems in the world. Now, while boats and ferries are also used to cross a river, the most common thing used to go from one bank of the river to another is a bridge. While there many popular bridges across some famous rivers worldwide, the Amazon River has surprisingly no bridge over it. Sounds surprising? In this article, we will take a look at why there is no bridge over the Amazon River.
Amazon River: Why is there no bridge over the river?
A vast river that flows for over 6,000 km across the continent of South America, the Amazon River is wide enough may points that a passenger on a boat in the middle of the river would not be able to see either shore. However, there are times when the river narrows considerably, becoming as little as one kilometre wide. While the Amazon has a vast jungle basin, breathtaking waterfalls, and the world’s largest river dolphins, it does not have any bridge. Hence, the 25 million people living on or near its banks in Brazil, Colombia and Peru, in metropolitan cities and tiny tribal villages, have to hop on a boat or a ferry to cross the bridge. The river is so vast and large that divides an entire continent into two halves.
The factor of the rainy season
While Amazon is not wide enough during the dry season to construct a bridge, it takes on a whole different form in the rainy season. During monsoon, the water level of the river rises by as much as 30 feet. So, if the width was three miles at any point, it becomes 30 miles within weeks. Moreover, the soft sediment that form the banks of the river is eroding constantly, and often the river is full of debris, making construction extremely difficult.
There are not many roads
The Amazon Basin does not have many roads for the bridges to connect. There is sparse population in the dense forest except the few cities, and the river itself acts as the main highway. Macapá, on the Amazon delta’s north shore, has half a million people living in the city but there is no road that connects it to the rest of Brazil. However, there is a cable bridge across Rio Negro, the Amazon’s largest tributary.
Amazon River has the unusual and abrupt pattern and rhythm of water. It is one of the most important rivers on this planet due to the immense biodiversity it sustains. Not just the animals, but the river is a lifeline for millions of people in Latin America. However, so far, the need to build a bridge across the river has not arose. It will be interesting to see whether one is built in the future overcoming the many challenges that the river presents.
The Amazon River, the world’s largest by discharge volume, surprisingly lacks bridges. This article explores the reasons behind this absence, citing the river’s extreme width fluctuations due to the rainy season, unstable riverbanks, and the limited road infrastructure in the Amazon Basin knowledge Knowledge News, Photos and Videos on General Knowledge
