Puente del Inca,
SpanishSpanish or Castilian is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that originated in northern Spain and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile, evolving into the principal language of government and trade in the Iberian peninsula...
for "the Inca's Bridge", is a
natural archA natural arch or natural bridge is a natural formation where a rock arch forms, with a natural passageway through underneath...
that forms a bridge over the Vacas River, a tributary of the
Mendoza RiverThe Mendoza River is a river in the province of Mendoza, Argentina. It is formed in the Andes range between the Aconcagua and the Tupungato, by the confluence of the Vacas, the Cuevas and the Tupungato Rivers, the last being its major tributary....
. It is located in
Mendoza ProvinceMendoza is one of the 23 provinces of Argentina, located in the western central part of the country in the Cuyo region. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise San Juan, San Luis, La Pampa, and Neuquén. To the west is Chile.-History:...
,
ArgentinaArgentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires. It is the eighth largest country in the world by land area and the largest among Spanish-speaking nations, though Mexico,...
near Las Cuevas.
Puente del Inca is also the name of the nearby
hot springA hot spring is a spring that is produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater from the Earth's crust. There are hot springs all over the earth, on every continent and even under the oceans and seas.-Definitions:...
s. Scientists speculate that interaction of extreme elements like ice and hot springs was involved in the origin of the formation. They suppose that in ancient times ice covered the river and acted as support for avalanches of snow, dust and rocks.
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Puente del Inca,
SpanishSpanish or Castilian is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that originated in northern Spain and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile, evolving into the principal language of government and trade in the Iberian peninsula...
for "the Inca's Bridge", is a
natural archA natural arch or natural bridge is a natural formation where a rock arch forms, with a natural passageway through underneath...
that forms a bridge over the Vacas River, a tributary of the
Mendoza RiverThe Mendoza River is a river in the province of Mendoza, Argentina. It is formed in the Andes range between the Aconcagua and the Tupungato, by the confluence of the Vacas, the Cuevas and the Tupungato Rivers, the last being its major tributary....
. It is located in
Mendoza ProvinceMendoza is one of the 23 provinces of Argentina, located in the western central part of the country in the Cuyo region. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise San Juan, San Luis, La Pampa, and Neuquén. To the west is Chile.-History:...
,
ArgentinaArgentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires. It is the eighth largest country in the world by land area and the largest among Spanish-speaking nations, though Mexico,...
near Las Cuevas.
Puente del Inca is also the name of the nearby
hot springA hot spring is a spring that is produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater from the Earth's crust. There are hot springs all over the earth, on every continent and even under the oceans and seas.-Definitions:...
s. Scientists speculate that interaction of extreme elements like ice and hot springs was involved in the origin of the formation. They suppose that in ancient times ice covered the river and acted as support for avalanches of snow, dust and rocks. So the dust over the ice over the river would have served as a path for the sulfurous water and
petrifiedIn geology, petrifaction, petrification or silicification is the process by which organic material is converted into stone by impregnation with silica. It is a rare form of fossilization...
the surface, so when the snow melted, the bridge remained by itself.
Charles DarwinCharles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist who realised and presented compelling evidence that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors, through the process he called natural selection...
was one of the visitors to this natural marvel, and made some drawings of the bridge with great stalactites.
In the early twentieth century there was a big thermal resort and
SpaA destination spa is a short term residential/lodging facility with the primary purpose of providing individual services for spa-goers to develop healthy habits. Historically many such spas were developed at the location of natural hot springs or sources of mineral waters...
that used the hot springs to cure some illnesses (a spa still survives further down the river at
CacheutaThe Cacheuta Spa is a bathing establishment in Argentina exploiting the natural hot springs at Cacheuta on the Mendoza River in the foothills of the Andes. The spa lies on the old road leading from the city of Mendoza to the Uspallata Pass over the mountains into Chile.-The first spa:This area of...
). There was a train station that is still standing there, and tourists arrived by train to the resort. This was one of the last Argentine stations of the Transandine Railway before the train continued into Chile, traveling through a long tunnel under the Andes.
The abandoned train station has been turned into a mountaineering museum (the "Museo del Andinista"), founded by a group of mountain climbers from the Argentine province of Rosario to display the cultural history of the Aconcagua area. The museum is open to the public during the summer and is run by the founding group of friends.
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