Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
have to walk about four flights to reach the top-
level walkway.
There are actually two bridges at this site. The
old Nicolas Avellaneda Bridge, now called the
Black Bridge
, was a transport bridge that
served the locals for years. Pressing commer-
cial requirements made the bridge obsolete, so
a heavier duty bridge was erected in 1940 to
link Buenos Aires with the populous suburb of
Avellaneda. The bridge, by the way, weighs
over 1,000 tons and is made of steel and cement.
Avenida Pedro de Mendoza
follows the turn
in the river that marks its mouth. It was here
that the original port began and here too is the
“ships cemetery.” The small village square,
located between Pedro de Mendoza and Dr. Del
Valle Ibarlucea Street, is called
Vuelta de
Rocha
because the land was formerly owned
by a wealthy gent named Antonio Rocha. The
monument here, a mast, rudder and anchor
standing on a mound of rocks, pays homage to
the sailors lost at sea. If you look across the
water from the Vuelta you can see the opposite
bank where Almirante Guillermo Brown,
Argentina's greatest naval hero, had
La
Maestranza
shipyard built. Ships fighting in
the battle for independence were repaired here.
Owing to this, the Vuelta de Rocha square also
has a bust of Almirante Brown in its center.
Fronting the Vuelta is
Caminito
, a short lane
only one block long, located between Calles
Magallanes and Lamadrid. Caminito was origi-
nally a side track for the local railway and later
