Photo of an Old Spanish Bridge in Lipa [April 1914, BPW Quarterly Bulletin]

This photograph is part of a series showing construction projects undertaken by the Bureau of Public Works during the American colonial era. All photographs have been digitally extracted from the Quarterly Bulletins of the bureau and processed using graphics editing software to improve quality. It goes without saying that the eventual output of each extract was always going to be dependent on the quality of the original scan.

The photograph below of an old Spanish bridge in the then-town of Lipa was not really among the construction projects of the Bureau of Public Works. Rather, it was included in the April 1914 edition of the Quarterly Bulletin as an example of an adobe bridge constructed during the Spanish colonial era which was still in “excellent condition” at the time.

The report noted that the bridge was 15.6 meters high and was already of considerable age in 1914, but was still very much serviceable and in good condition. The report did not make clear whether the bridge was in the same place where a modern bridge has been built in that is called the Sabang district of Lipa City. However, since there is no other place in Lipa where a bridge of such height would have been necessary, chances are that the old Spanish bridge was, indeed, what is now also called the Sabang Bridge.

¹ “Bureau of Public Works Quarterly Bulletin, Volume 2 No. 4,” compiiled by C.A. Tansill, published April 1914 in Manila by the Bureau of Public Works.