Seine River Bridges: Pont Neuf

The oldest bridge crossing the Seine in Paris is the Pont Neuf (New Bridge). All the older bridges over the Seine were destroyed or replaced. Perhaps the Pont Neuf was preserved because of its noble birth. The first stone was laid by Henry III in 1577. However, the bridge was not completed until 1607 (by Henry IV).

As shown in the photo, the bridge connects the left and right banks to the downstream end of the Ile de la Cite (we are looking upstream, so the left bank is on our right). Seven stone arch spans connect the island to the right bank and five stone arch spans connect it to the left bank. The total length of the bridge is 232 m (760 ft) and it is 22 m (72 ft) wide.  A nice feature of the bridge are the large bastions above the piers that allow pedestrians (and especially tourists) to stand out of the way and look around.

The bridge has been repaired and rebuilt many times including major repair work that was completed in 2007 for its 400th birthday.

Seine River Bridges: Pont Neuf by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.