Pont de la Concorde (Paris)


The Pont de la Concorde is an arch bridge across the Seine in Paris connecting the Quai des Tuileries at the Place de la Concorde and the Quai d'Orsay. It has formerly been known as the "Pont Louis XVI", "Pont de la Révolution", "Pont de la Concorde", "Pont Louis XVI" again during the Bourbon Restoration ; in 1830, its name was changed again to Pont de la Concorde, the name it has retained to this day. It is served by the Metro stations Assemblée nationale and Concorde.

Situation

The bridge is located on the border between the 7th and 8th arrondissement of Paris. The Pont Alexandre III is the next bridge downstream; the Passerelle Léopold-Sédar-Senghor is the next bridge upstream.

History

Construction

The architect Jean-Rodolphe Perronet was commissioned in 1787 with this new bridge. It had been planned since 1755, when construction of "place Louis XV" began, to replace the ferry that crossed the river at that point. Construction continued in the midst of the turmoil of the French Revolution, using the dimension stones taken from the demolished Bastille for its masonry. It was completed in 1791.

19th century

In 1810, Napoleon placed along the sides of the bridge the statues of eight French generals killed in battle during the campaigns of the First French Empire. On the Bourbon Restoration these were replaced with twelve monumental marble statues, including four of the "grands ministres", four royal generals and four sailors. However, this collection of statues proved too heavy for the bridge, and Louis-Philippe I had them removed and transferred to Versailles.

20th–21st centuries

Traffic across the bridge became very congested and the bridge had to be widened on both sides between 1930 and 1932, doubling the width of the original bridge. The engineers Deval and Malet nevertheless took care to preserve the neoclassical architecture of the original. It was renovated one last time in 1983. Today, this bridge bears the brunt of Paris's road traffic.