Calle Antonio González Echarte

Antonio González Echarte was born in Madrid in 1864 and became a civil engineer when electricity was still a laboratory promise. He tamed it: he built the first hydroelectric plants that lit the capital, and in 1904 he founded the firm Mengemor, which ended up bringing light to Córdoba and much of Andalusia. His greatest work runs underground. In 1914 he presented, with Mendoza and Otamendi, the project for the Metro network, and in 1917 the three founded the Compañía Metropolitano Alfonso XIII. Echarte did not only calculate tunnels: he designed the stations, the sheds and even the Metro’s first logo, that red diamond that still guides those who go down to the platforms. He worked so much in the shadow of that underground world that the Metro’s memory nicknamed him “the ghost.” He died in Madrid in 1942. The street traces a short stretch in the Almenara neighborhood, far from the bustle of the center but a Metro ride from the lines he helped open.