General Information
Project Type
| Structure: |
Single-cell box girder bridge |
|---|---|
| Function / usage: |
Road bridge |
| Material: |
Steel bridge |
Location
| Location: |
Paris ( 7th), Paris, Ile-de-France, France Paris ( 8th), Paris, Ile-de-France, France |
|---|---|
| Crosses: |
|
| Replaces: |
Alma Bridge (1856)
|
| Coordinates: | 48° 51' 49" N 2° 18' 6" E |
Technical Information
Dimensions
| total length | 142.50 m | |
| span lengths | 110 m - 31.50 m | |
| number of spans | 2 | |
| deck | deck width | 42 m |
Quantities
| structural steel | 2 x 1 634 t (573 kg/m²) |
Materials
| deck slab |
steel
|
|---|---|
| girders |
steel
|
Notes
The bridge was built with such a span arrangement to reduce the number of piers in the river. The suitable load bearing stratum being at 42.40 m below river water level, building more than one pier would have been too costly.
Excerpt from Wikipedia
Pont de l'Alma (English: Alma Bridge) is a road bridge in Paris, France across the Seine. It was named to commemorate the Battle of Alma during the Crimean War, in which the Ottoman-Franco-British alliance achieved victory over the Russian army, on 20 September 1854.
History
Construction
Construction of an arch bridge took place between 1854 and 1856. It was designed by Paul-Martin Gallocher de Lagalisserie and was inaugurated by Napoleon III on 2 April 1856. Each side of both of the two piers was decorated with a statue of military nature: a Zouave and a grenadier by Georges Diébolt, and a skirmisher and an artilleryman by Arnaud.
The Zouave statue and flooding
The general public took the original bridge as a measuring instrument for water levels in times of flooding on the Seine: access to the footpaths by the river embankments usually was closed when the Seine's level reached the feet of The Zouave; when the water hit his thighs, the river was unnavigable. During the great flood of the Seine in 1910, the level reached his shoulders. The French Civil Service used the Pont de la Tournelle, not the Pont de l'Alma, to gauge flood levels, and since 1868 uses the Pont d'Austerlitz.
Reconstruction
The bridge underwent complete reconstruction as a girder bridge between 1970 and 1974, as it had been too narrow to accommodate the increasing traffic both on and below it; moreover, the structure had subsided some 80 centimeters. Only the statue of the Zouave was retained: the Skirmisher was relocated to the Gravelle Stronghold in Vincennes, the Grenadier to Dijon, and the Artilleryman to La Fère.
Death of Diana, Princess of Wales
Entrance to the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in April 1998, the site where Diana's car hit a Fiat and then the wall Main article: Death of Diana, Princess of Wales
The bridge is close to the Pont de l'Alma tunnel where Diana, Princess of Wales and four others were involved in a fatal car crash on 31 August 1997. They were being chased by paparazzi, and their chauffeur was driving under the influence of alcohol. The Flame of Liberty (completed in 1987), at the bridge's north end has become an unofficial memorial to Diana.
Technical specifications
Pont de l'Alma has a length of 153 meters (502 ft) and a width of 42 meters (138 ft).
Text imported from Wikipedia article "Pont de l''Alma" and modified on July 22, 2019 according to the CC-BY-SA 4.0 International license.
Participants
- Auguste Arsac (architect)
- M. Dougnac (architect)
- J. F. Coste (engineer)
- Ch. Blanc (engineer)
Relevant Web Sites
Relevant Publications
- (1974): Construction de l'ossature métallique du pont de l'Alma. In: Travaux, n. 476 (November 1974), pp. 59.
- (1990): Les grands ponts du monde: Ponts remarquables d'Europe. Brissaud, Poitiers (France), pp. 245.
- (1973): New Alma Bridge over the Seine in Paris. In: Acier = Stahl = Steel, v. 38, n. 3 (March 1973), pp. 120-127.
- (1974): Le nouveau pont de l'Alma à Paris. In: Travaux, n. 476 (November 1974), pp. 54.
- Le nouveau pont de l'Alma à Paris. In: Bulletin annuel AFPC ( 1971- 1972), pp. 51-52.
- About this
data sheet - Structure-ID
20000230 - Published on:
09/05/1999 - Last updated on:
05/02/2016
