Description
The Pont Alexandre III is the most ornate bridge in Paris, a single steel arch across the Seine between the Champs-Élysées district and the Invalides. Gilded statues, lamps, cherubs and nymphs make it look more like a stage set than an engineering work, and it frames the view toward the golden dome of the Invalides.
Look first at the four tall pillars at the ends, 17 meters high, each crowned by a gilded bronze Fame holding back a winged horse, Pegasus. Two stand for the sciences and the arts on the right bank, two for commerce and industry on the left.
Then come the details: cherubs, lions led by children, and 32 bronze lamps in Art Nouveau style. At the center of the arches two copper nymphs face each other: the nymph of the Seine, with the arms of Paris, and the nymph of the Neva, with those of imperial Russia.
A Russian tsar on a Paris bridge? Alexander III had sealed an alliance with France in 1892, and Paris thanked him with this bridge. His son, Nicholas II, laid the first stone in October 1896.
The bridge opened for the 1900 World's Fair, like the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais it leads to. And it had a strict rule to follow: it must not block the view of the Invalides or of the Champs-Élysées.
The engineers' answer was a single, very flat steel arch of 107 meters, with no piers in the river, its huge sideways thrust held by massive foundations in the banks. In Saint Petersburg, the Trinity Bridge was built as a memorial to the same alliance.
Look at the bridge at night, when its lamps are lit, and from the quays below, where the arch shows its full line.
Look first at the four tall pillars at the ends, 17 meters high, each crowned by a gilded bronze Fame holding back a winged horse, Pegasus. Two stand for the sciences and the arts on the right bank, two for commerce and industry on the left.
Then come the details: cherubs, lions led by children, and 32 bronze lamps in Art Nouveau style. At the center of the arches two copper nymphs face each other: the nymph of the Seine, with the arms of Paris, and the nymph of the Neva, with those of imperial Russia.
A Russian tsar on a Paris bridge? Alexander III had sealed an alliance with France in 1892, and Paris thanked him with this bridge. His son, Nicholas II, laid the first stone in October 1896.
The bridge opened for the 1900 World's Fair, like the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais it leads to. And it had a strict rule to follow: it must not block the view of the Invalides or of the Champs-Élysées.
The engineers' answer was a single, very flat steel arch of 107 meters, with no piers in the river, its huge sideways thrust held by massive foundations in the banks. In Saint Petersburg, the Trinity Bridge was built as a memorial to the same alliance.
Look at the bridge at night, when its lamps are lit, and from the quays below, where the arch shows its full line.