The Vasco da Gama Bridge, which crosses the Tagus River and connects the municipality of Almada to Lisbon and Sacavém, was inaugurated 25 years ago. According to the Lisbon City Council, since its inauguration, on March 29, 2008, more than 500 million vehicles have crossed it in both directions.

“The Vasco da Gama Bridge completes 25 years. Inaugurated on March 29, 1998, since then 543,790 million vehicles have crossed the Tagus River on Vasco da Gama in both directions of traffic”, highlighted the municipality on social networks, adding that the bridge is “considered one of the largest engineering projects in the world of the twentieth century”.

At over 12 kilometres long, it is the longest bridge in the European Union (EU) and was once the longest in Europe. However, it lost the title in 2018, after the inauguration of the Kerch Bridge, known as the Crimean Bridge, which connects the peninsula to Russia and is about 17 kilometres long.

The bridge was built to relieve traffic on the 25 de Abril Bridge and was inaugurated for Expo'98. It received the name of Vasco de Gama in honour of the Portuguese navigator with the same name, who, 500 years before, arrived in India.