A project that began in the 1940s with the labor of prisoners from the Ushuaia Prison , and was later taken up and completed by the Argentine Navy and the National Highway Administration in the second half of 1950—at the same time work was being carried out to open the Garibaldi Pass—will now be finally completed.
This is the Prefect Luis Pedro Fique Footbridge . A 600-meter-long artificial traffic route that separates and cuts across the western coastal edge of Ushuaia Bay from north to south, dividing its waters as they expand eastward toward the Beagle Channel. In Yagán: Onashaga.
In this case, some 80 years after its inception, the municipality of Ushuaia, based on the paving plan implemented by Mayor Walter Vuoto , launched this road and beautification project, which, given its apparent state of progress, could be completed in the coming months. This project not only restored vehicular and pedestrian traffic but also enhanced the city's unique quality, allowing for the scenic enjoyment of a city nestled on the forested and glacial slopes of the Fuegian Andes.
Although not everything is landscape. The completion of the old work has a historical value. On the one hand, it highlights the figure of Prefect Luis Pedro Fique , the first Argentine to settle in an Ushuaia inhabited by a handful of English priests from the Anglican Mission ; a product of having arrived to these lands on the expedition led by Virasoro and Calvo, for the inauguration of the Subprefecture of Ushuaia on October 12, 1884. And on the other, it accounts for the past need (?) of the Argentine Navy to have quick and direct access to the runway at Punta Observatorio , which by then had been promoted to the rank of Ushuaia Naval Air Station . For the people of Ushuaia today, the "old airport", where military, commercial and civil flights operated simultaneously until November 1995, when the runway of the Malvinas Argentinas International Airport in Ushuaia was inaugurated.
Its paving and visible projection in terms of vehicular and pedestrian integration will definitively put an end to the suspended dust that was generated for more than eight decades by the constant vehicular traffic between the downtown area, the Upper Mission , the current military quarter for Navy officers - the area of the first settlement of the Anglican Mission headed since 1853 by Tomas Bridge - and the Naval Air Station .
A few days ago, Agenda Malvinas toured the site with drones by photographer Juan Odela , observing and experiencing the spatial dimension incorporated by the work, both as a daily presence for the people of Tierra del Fuego and for the memory, photography, and image of tourists and visitors who walk along the Luis Pedro Fique Footbridge , day or night, and at any time of year.
A first documentary approach to the work, which will be explored and enjoyed for centuries to come.
* Special thanks for the historical information provided by Mr. Carlos Pedro Vairo , director of the Maritime Museum and the Ushuaia Prison.
