Long before Henry Ford’s Model T could make their trip to the shores of the Philippines, Roxas City Bridge (then known as Capiz Bridge) has been standing mighty and proud connecting the two islands that comprise what is now the heart of Roxas City.
The Roxas City Bridge was built between 1908 and 1910, when the American’s bridge-building hysteria was at its height. The construction took place during terms of two governors, Antonio Habana and Jose Cortez Altavas, and during the administration of Capiz Town’s president, Pastor Alcazar (1908-1912). The country’s resident commissioner to the US House of Representatives that time was Manuel Luis M. Quezon, with the American-run Bureau of Public Works (the precursor of today’s DPWH) taking care of the construction of bridges and other public infrastructures across the country.
The bridge was constructed in line with the American’s belief that “what could be linked with a bridge was indeed connected.” The bridge withstood the bombings of World War II and thereafter, it remained virtually unaltered or renovated. Thus, to this day, the bridge you see upon passing on it is almost exactly as it was more than a century ago.
