Saint-Cloud Bridge

The pont de Saint-Cloud (Saint-Cloud Bridge) is a French bridge constructed of metal which crosses the Seine between the communes of Boulogne-Billancourt and Saint-Cloud in the French department of Hauts-de-Seine.

The first pont de Saint-Cloud appeared in 841 because of a conflict between Charles the Bald et Lothaire I, and consisted of only a simple wooden footbridge. The Seine has been traversable from this location for twelve centuries, and tradition holds that no king of France has traversed it without suffering a sudden death. As a result, sovereigns have crossed the Seine by boat. The wooden bridge was demolished after the death of François I, and in 1556 his son Henri II constructed a new stone bridge consisting of eleven arches. This bridge was too demolished during the Second Fronde and replaced with a bridge made of wooden arches. Napoléon ordered its renovation in 1808, giving it a new width of 12.8 metres (14.0 yd). It was again reconstructed in 1940, expanded another 30 metres (33 yd) for a total width of 186 metres (203 yd). The single-piece deck crosses the entire river, supported by six columns of reinforced concrete. In order to facilitate circulation across the banks, underground passages have been built on the two sides of the river.

Text imported from Wikipedia article "Pont de Saint-Cloud" and modified on July 23, 2019 according to the CC-BY-SA 4.0 International license.