Pont du Carrousel description and photos - France: Paris (Topic)

Pont du Carrousel description and photos - France: Paris. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photographs and a map showing the nearest significant objects. The title in English is Pont du Carrousel.

Photo and description

The Carrusel Bridge is the name of one of Rilke's poems. It does not speak of a bridge, but of a blind man standing on it, but without a name, one cannot understand the tragedy of the plot. Because a blind man stands on the bridge leading to the Louvre, that is, in the very center of Paris, in the center of beauty that he does not see.

Rilke wrote about the old, not converted Carrousel Bridge, but it does not matter - the place it was almost the same. The crossing opposite the Carrousel Arch was built by the royal decree of Louis Philippe I of 1831. The construction was entrusted to the engineer Antoine-Remy Polonso, a man with an inclination for innovation and thoughtful risk. At that time, most of the Parisian bridges were hanging, but he put an arched one, while using a relatively new material - cast iron combined with wood. The pillars of the structure were decorated with large cast-iron rings, which Parisians immediately began to ironically call napkin rings. On each corner of the bridge, on high pedestals, there were stone allegorical sculptures in the classical style by Louis Petito - female figures depicting Industry, Abundance, Paris and the Seine.

In 1883, the bridge was closed for six months to renew the wooden elements. Even then, experts recommended replacing them with iron ones, but they did this only in 1906, using reinforced concrete. Despite the restoration, the bridge, too narrow and too low, is obsolete for the twentieth century. It was decided to build a new one, slightly moving it.

The engineers Henri Lange and Jacques Moran, who developed the project, tried to preserve the silhouette of the old bridge, already familiar to the townspeople. Besides, they abandoned the use of metal due to the close proximity of ancient buildings - the Louvre, Pont-Neuf and Pont-Royal. Thus, the three-arch Carrousel Bridge, leading directly into the Louvre gate, does not look modern. Although it is reinforced concrete, it is faced with stone, and at the entrances to it, the carefully preserved Industry, Abundance, Paris and the Seine still stand on their pedestals.

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Topic: Pont du Carrousel description and photos - France: Paris.