“Don’t burn your bridges” says an English saying, ’cause you will never know when it will serve you cross on the other side, but don’t know how to interpret this when it comes to a bridge that spans over a sea, or at least is trying to until a certain point leaving the visitor to continue the invisible trajectory to a point long behind the horizon line.

At only 5 minutes away from Barcelona, heading north along the coast lies the town of Badalona, Catalonia’s second largest town after Barcelona. I invite you to come and discover it and its iconic Petrol Bridge (Pont del Petroli). Featuring in international advertising campaigns like Ray Ban’s, the bridge is a structure that spans 250 meters over the waves of the Mediterranean Sea at 6 meters height. It was built in 1965 to facilitate the transportation of petrol and derivatives from the ships to the shore. It was used until 1990.

Since then it gained the attention of the divers who discovered a new ecosystem easily reachable without too much equipment or boats. The divers were the ones who stopped the bridge to be demolished and shifted its destination not only towards a civic use but also towards an academic one. On the platform at the end of the bridge there is a weather & sea observation station that observes and collects information. Unfortunately the latest data speaks of a deteriorating trend of the biodiversity affected by a large number of boats, and people that pollute during the summer months or the presence of invasive species.

That’s why, please try to pick up any trash that you may find. The bridge will thank you silently.