The Pont du Carrousel is one of 37 bridges located in Paris (France) across the Seine river between the Quai des Tuileries and the Quai Voltaire in the 7th and 1st arrondissements.
This site is served by the Palais Royal – Musée du Louvre metro station.
Begun in 1831 in the prolongation of the rue des Saints-Pères on the Left Bank, the original bridge was known under that name until its inauguration, in 1834, when king Louis-Philippe named it Pont du Carrousel, because it opened on the Right Bank river frontage of the Louvre Palace near the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel in front of the Tuileries gardens.
In 1906, after seven decades of use, serious restoration was required; the former wooden elements were replaced with beaten iron. Nevertheless, the bridge was too narrow for twentieth-century traffic, and shifted alarmingly. In 1930, its height above the river was judged insufficient for river transportation, and it was decided to scrap it for an entirely new structure to be built a few tens of metres downstream from the former one, and with greater headroom on the river.
The architects Malet and Lang attempted to respect the former aspect, which now had become familiar to Parisians. The new bridge of reinforced concrete still crosses the river in three arches reaching the right bank in front of the Louvre, in direct line with the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel. For its lighting at night, the iron craftsman Raymond Subes conceived an ingenious telescoping system that raised the streetlights from a height of 13 metres in the daytime to 20 metres at nightfall when they were lit; however, the system was too fragile to be of any use and did not function until it was repaired in 1999.
Next upstream: Pont des Arts
Next downstream: Pont Royal
Type: Arch bridge
Length: 168 m
Width: 33 m
Material(s): Reinforced concrete
Construction 1935-1939
Architect(s): Gaspard, G. Umbdenstock
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