Pont Alexandre III - Paris, France
Posted by: 
Metro2
N 48° 51.763 E 002° 18.821
31U E 449663 N 5412422
Construction of this beautiful bridge was completed in 1900 for the Universal Exposition that same year.
Waymark Code: WMD4RF
Location: Île-de-France, France
Date Posted: 11/18/2011
Views: 61
This arch bridge spans the Seine between the Invalides and the Champs-Élysées. The bridge has many beautiful sculptures. It was named after the Tsar of Russia who had concluded the Franco-Russian Alliance in 1892.
Wikipedia (
visit link) has this to add about the bridge:
"Numerous sculptors provided the sculpture that features prominently in the bridge. Four gilt-bronze statues of Fames watch over the bridge, supported on massive 17-meter socles, that provide stabilizing counterweight for the arch, without interfering with monumental views. The socles are crowned by Fames restraining Pegasus : on the Right Bank, Renommée des Sciences ("Fame of the Sciences") and the Renommée des Arts ("Fame of the Arts") both by Emmanuel Frémiet; at their bases, La France Contemporaine ("Contemporary France") by Gustave Michel and France de Charlemagne ("France of Charlemagne") by Alfred Lenoir. The lions groups are by Georges Gardet.
On the Left Bank, the Renommée du Commerce ("Fame of Commerce") by Pierre Granet and the Renommée de l'Industrie ("Fame of Industry") by Clément Steiner; at their bases France de la Renaissance ("France of the Renaissance") by Jules Coutan and La France de Louis XIV ("France of Louis XIV") by Laurent Marqueste. The lions groups are by Jules Dalou.
At the centres of the arches, Nymphs of the Seine with the arms of France correspond with Nymphs of the Neva with the arms of Imperial Russia on the other face; both are executed in hammered copper over forms by Georges Récipon. (In the same political spirit, the Trinity Bridge in Saint Petersburg was conceived as a memorial to the Franco-Russian Alliance. It was designed by Gustave Eiffel, and the first stone laid in August 1897 by French president Félix Faure.)"
As for the Exposition, Wikipedia (
visit link) informs us that the Fair was intended to:
"celebrate the achievements of the past century and to accelerate development into the next. The style that was universally present in the Exposition was Art Nouveau...
The Exposition Universelle was where talking films and escalators were first publicized, and where Campbell's Soup was awarded a gold medal (an image of which still appears on its label). At the Exposition Rudolf Diesel exhibited his diesel engine, running on peanut oil. Brief films of excerpts from opera and ballet are apparently the first films exhibited publicly with projection of both image and recorded sound. The Exposition also featured many panoramic paintings and extensions of the panorama technique, such as the Cinéorama, Mareorama, and Trans-Siberian Railway Panorama."
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