The Pont de la Concorde is one of 37 bridges across the Seine connecting the Quai des Tuileries at the Place de la Concorde (on the Rive Droite) and the Quai d’Orsay (on the Rive Gauche opposite the Palais Bourbon) on the border between the 7th and 8th arrondissement of Paris (France).
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 (1814); 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 Paris Metro stations Assemblée nationale and Concorde.
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” (now “place de la Concorde”) 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 (taken by force on 14 July 1789) for its masonry. It was completed in 1791.
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 (except for those of the Boulevard Périphérique).
Next upstream: Passerelle Léopold-Sédar-Senghor
Next downstream: Pont Alexandre III
Characteristics
Design: Jean-Rodolphe Perronet
Total length: 153 metres (502 ft)
Width: 18 metres
Construction start: 1787
Opened: 1791
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