Baku, October 25 (AZERTAC). The president of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, and his predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, inaugurated today a bridge of 3595 meters in the Black River as it passes through the city of Manaus, the largest ever built in the Amazon basin.

The cable-stayed bridge linking the capital of Amazonas state and the town of Iranduba, near the confluence of the Black and Amazon, and cost 1,099 million reals ($ 625 million).

The work is the second longest suspension bridge in the world, after one that crosses the Orinoco River in Venezuela, according to the Brazilian Government.

Rousseff said at the opening ceremony that the bridge will support the development of the region at a time that will contribute to the “preservation of the environment”.

The central pillar of the bridge is 185 meters high, the structure has two spans of 200 meters in length that allow navigation and route has two lanes in each direction for vehicular traffic.

The work lasted three years and ten months, provided jobs for 3,400 workers and consumed 20,000 tons of steel, 1.5 million bags of cement and 47,000 cubic meters of sand and pebbles and 72,000 tons of bitumen coating.

The bridge will benefit mainly Iranduba, a town dedicated to the production of ceramics, and Manacapuru, the main town of the area, which is 80 miles from Manaus.

At the same ceremony, Rousseff signed a decree extending the tax benefits of the free zone of Manaus to all cities in the metropolitan region over the next 50 years, which will be an incentive for the establishment of industries outside the capital of Amazonas.

“While the forest preserve, create job opportunities for a dignified life, to combine growth and respect for the environment,” said the Brazilian president.

The industrial pole of Manaus, established in 1967, brings together many electronics companies, telephony, computers, appliances, assembly of motorcycles, among others.