Puente de los Franceses (Madrid) Puente de los Franceses (Madrid) The Puente de los Franceses (Bridge of the Frenchmen) railway viaduct is located in Madrid, Spain. Comprising five semi-circular brick skew arches, it was built in the second half of the 19th century to carry the railway line from the north (Madrid - Venta de Baños - Irun) across the River Manzanares. The bridge is named after the nationality of the engineers who devised the project, who were of French origin. The bridge is also known as the French Bridge. The bridge was built between 1860 and 1862, along with other construction work on the
New Madrid, Missouri the United States. New Madrid lies far from any plate boundaries, but it is on the New Madrid Seismic Zone. The major earthquake was felt as far away as the East Coast. During the Civil War, the Battle of Island Number Ten took place on the Mississippi River near New Madrid. In the antebellum period, this fertile floodplain area was developed for cotton plantations, based on the labor of enslaved African Americans. They were emancipated after the Civil War and worked to make new lives. As whites struggled to re-establish dominance after the Reconstruction era, they intimidated and attacked blacks