The bridge, officially called the Ponte Internacional do Marco in Portuguese or the Puente de El Marco in Spanish, links the Portuguese hamlet of Várzea Grande, in the municipality of Arronches, with the Spanish hamlet of El Marco, in the municipality of La Codosera, crossing the Abrilongo stream that forms the border between the two countries. According to IFLScience , the crossing is widely reported as being about 6 metres long, a figure that comes directly from the Arronches municipal government's own official page, though other sources, including Atlas Obscura, describe it as closer to 3.2 metres, leaving some genuine disagreement over its exact length. What is not disputed is the time difference. Spain operates on Central European Time, one hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time, while Portugal follows Western European Time, the same as Greenwich Mean Time. Crossing the bridge in either direction means either gaining or losing an hour in an instant.
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