The Engineer Luis de Moliní Ulibarri was director of the Works Board of the Port of Seville between 1895 and 1915. In 1902, seven years before the exposition was planned, he conceived a general project to improve the navigation of the Ría del Guadalquivir, its mouth, and the port. Its main axis was the construction of the Corta de Tablada Canal with a rotating bridge at its opening. 

 

Moliní built the Corta de Tablada, which reduced the route of the estuary by about 3 km, allowed the creation of new docks, and contributed to the defenses of the city against floods. 

 

The swing bridge would be built in 1926 by the engineer José Delgado Brackenbury after Moliní’s death. To honor the monarch it was named Alfonso XIII Bridge, being more popularly known as the "Iron Bridge." It was disassembled in 1998 and moved somewhere else in 2003.

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