Pont Alexandre III, Paris

Pont Alexandre III is the ornate deck arch bridge carrying you across the Seine. Its unusually restrained height lets the views toward the Champs-Élysées and the Invalides remain open, while its decoration turns the structure into a spectacle. Look at the massive masonry pedestals and the sculpted figures gathered around them.

Four gilt-bronze Fames crown the bridge’s great supports, each restraining Pegasus. The bridge rises on a single steel arch about 6 metres high, built to span the river without an intermediate support. Joseph Cassien-Bernard and Gaston Cousin designed the bridge, with engineering by Jean Résal and Amédée Alby.

It was built between 1896 and 1900 for the Exposition Universelle, then inaugurated in 1900. The reliefs over the Seine portray nymphs of the Seine and the Neva, carrying the arms of Paris and Imperial Russia as a memorial to the Franco-Russian Alliance. The bridge takes its name from Tsar Alexander III, whose alliance with France shaped its original political meaning. Its exuberant lamps, cherubs, nymphs and winged horses give it the Art Nouveau character that makes this crossing so memorable.