Presa Tacubaya

Presa Tacubaya is part of the city's water infrastructure rather than a place for a stroll: a regulating basin in the west of the city, on the Tacubaya river, on Calle Leandro Valle in the Liberales de 1857 district of Álvaro Obregón. It was built in 1936 to hold back the surges of water that come down the ravines in the rainy season, with an original capacity of 700,000 m³. It borders El Capulín, Liberales de 1987, Pólvora and Molino de Santo Domingo, and is one of the borough's 13 containment dams, alongside others on the same river such as Ruiz Cortines and Totolapan.

The basin collects rubbish and homes have crept up its edges. Floods hit the surrounding neighbourhoods every so often, and in 2023 water entered about 50 houses in El Capulín after the Tacubaya, Becerra and Ruiz Cortines dams overflowed; the authorities blamed rain and rubbish clogging the drains, while some residents say a gate was opened to protect the railway works.

Today the dam is best known for that railway. The final stretch of El Insurgente, the Mexico City to Toluca commuter train, crosses the basin on an elevated viaduct; the route was shifted here in 2015 because a protected area blocked the original line, and residents of Liberales de 1857 and Belén de las Flores have since demanded risk studies, since the columns stand very close to their homes. On 17 April 2024 an 800-tonne segment launcher collapsed inside the basin; no one was hurt. So rather than a sight, the dam is a way to see how water and the city share space in the west.