The scientific legacy of the "Instituto Eduardo Torroja" in Bilbao (1960-1980)

By means of this analysis, we have endeavored to evaluate and understand both the influence that the IETcc started to bear on scientific progress in Bilbao, mainly during the 1960s and the 1970s, as well as the determined efforts of the local financial and industrial elite of the time to transform Bilbao into the great metropolis of the north, i.e. the economic capital of that part of Spain, using as a model, among other metropolises, New York, the financial capital of America, and Pittsburg, the industrial capital. The various means to accomplish this have been studied: from the institutions of investigation, exposition and information which would initiate the longed for scientific progress, to the pathways for reproducing the fascinating American way.