Pont des Arts Bridge

What was the first major landmark in Paris made with a metallic structure? The Grand Palais in 1900? The Eiffel Tower in 1889? Or the Pont des Arts in 1801?

If you answered the Pont des Arts, you were right thanks to Napoleon who commissioned it and inaugurated it two years later!! Historians argue whether his motivation was to match the Coalbrookdale bridge, which was the first cast iron bridge in the U.K. Built in 1781, it was the first in the world for that matter! OK one point for England on this one I guess...

The Pont des Arts, was named that way as it connected the Louvre Museum (then called "Palais des Arts") and the Institute on the other side of the river.

Back then, bridges could be lined up with market stalls of all sorts. For the inauguration, a flower seller set up his business there and arranged orange trees, plants and flowers all along the bridge. You could even purchase treats from an ice-cream parlour! Passers-by described the new bridge as a heavenly suspended garden!

Would you like to find out about the many ways Napoleon transformed the architecture of Paris?