Pont d'Iéna
| Pont d'Iéna | |
|---|---|
Pont d'Iéna
|
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| Coordinates | 48°51′35″N 02°17′32″E / 48.85972°N 2.29222°E |
| Crosses | Seine |
| Locale | Paris, France |
| Official name | Pont d'Iéna |
| Maintained by | Civil Service |
| Next upstream | Passerelle Debilly |
| Next downstream | Pont de Bir-Hakeim |
| Characteristics | |
| Design | Arch Bridge |
| Total length | 155 m (508 ft) |
| Width | 35 m (115 ft) |
| History | |
| Opened | 1814 |
Coordinates: 48°51′35″N 02°17′32″E / 48.85972°N 2.29222°E
Pont d'Iéna ("Jena Bridge") is a bridge spanning the River Seine in Paris. It links the Eiffel Tower on the Left Bank to the district of Trocadéro on the Right Bank.
In 1807, Napoleon I ordered, by an imperial decree issued in Warsaw, the construction of a bridge overlooking the Military School, and named the bridge after his victory in 1806 at the Battle of Jena, disregarding names considered previously: pont du Champ-de-Mars and pont de l'École militaire. Prussian General Blücher wanted to destroy the bridge before the Battle of Paris in 1814, but was persuaded not to by the Allied forces. Blücher had been present at the humiliating defeat of the Prussians by Napoleon at the Battle of Jena, where approximately 28,000 Prussians were killed to France's 2,480, after which Prussia was occupied by France.
The structure was designed with five arches, each with an arc length of 28 m, and four intermediate piers. The initial construction, the cost of which was enormous at the time, was fully financed by the State and spanned six years from 1808 to 1814.
The tympana along the sides of the bridge had been originally decorated with imperial eagles conceptualized by François-Frédéric Lemot and sculpted by Jean-François Mouret. The eagles were replaced with the royal letter "L" soon after the fall of the First Empire in 1815 but in 1852, when Napoléon III ascended the throne of the Second Empire, new imperial eagles, this time by the chisel of Antoine-Louis Barye, replaced the royal "L".
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