The Nervión River, Industrial Heritage & Bilbao's Iron History

The Nervión River ('Ría del Nervión' — the tidal estuary of the Nervión that runs 15 km from Bilbao to the Bay of Biscay) was the engine of the Basque industrial revolution — the river along whose banks the iron ore from the Basque mines was smelted in the steel mills of the 'Altos Hornos de Vizcaya' (the 'High Furnaces of Vizcaya' — the great steel complex that was the largest steel manufacturer in Spain from the late 19th century to the 1980s) and transformed into the steel that was shipped from the Nervión to the world.