I was stunned to see the ruins of the bridge that Sergio Leone let explode in “Duck Your Sucker” (Once Upon a Time – The Revolution is my much preferred title) when in the Almeria province recently.
Can someone tell me whether this bridge was build for the film and the destroyed (which is what I assume) or was it a preexisting bridge? I’m confused by the actual paths that you can see on BOTH sides of the former bridge…
Thanks to anyone who can solve this mystery for me!
While I haven’t read any hard facts about it, I’m quite sure it was built for the explosion only. There might be a path at the north end of the bridge, but there isn’t really a road or former road, as far as I know.
See also
This is a today’s screenshot – 50+ years after the bridge’s collapse, it seems that there are still some remains of traffic…
They had to prepare something for the film because the vehicles had to get to the bridge from the north, but to me the part immediately to the north of the bridge doesn’t look like it’s ever been a real road. I could be wrong, of course.
Also, a few hundred meters to the west you can easily travel across the dry rambla river bed, as they usually did and still do in Almería. The old stagecoach routes are well documented and basically follow what’s the N-340 today, which runs a couple of kilometres north. I’d be surprised if the bridge had been built before the film because I don’t see the point in this particular location.
You could have asked the locals while you were there. 
Great thoughts, thanks so much! I indeed could have asked the “locals” – if (a) I could speak at least some Spanish, (b) if I would have encountered anyone during my Tabernas hikes to the bridge remains, and (c) if I wouldn’t have been fully occupied with taking pictures (as Coburn was not available, my son had to pull the trigger this time!
For what it’s worth, arguably the most active Spanish location guy on social media at the moment also says it was built for the film.
So you talked to Juanen Pérez Miranda? (I’m following his location posts on FB for a number of years now.)
I know Juanen from a couple of events in Almería, but this time I actually meant Mero Garcia who runs pages on several social media platforms. I didn’t ask him but someone else did under one of his many photos of the bridge on Facebook. “Once upon a time, the Western in Spain” is the page’s name on Facebook.
Ah! I’ve subscribed to that one too (of course
