Pont de Pierre

Bordeaux's first permanent bridge, built by Napoleon with exactly 17 arches for the letters of his name

The Pont de Pierre is the oldest bridge across the Garonne in Bordeaux, built between 1810 and 1822. Constructed of local stone in the form of seventeen arches — the stone facade gives it an elegance that concrete bridges lack — it was for over a century the only fixed crossing of the Garonne in the city.

Today the bridge carries trams and pedestrians but no private cars, which makes it a pleasant way to cross to the Right Bank on foot. The view from the bridge in either direction is excellent: south toward the sweep of the 18th-century waterfront, north toward the towers and spires of the old city.

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A story
Napoleon ordered the bridge built in 1810, declaring that Bordeaux — capital of a wine-producing region with no crossing of the Garonne — needed a permanent connection to the Right Bank. The bridge was completed in 1822, after his death. The engineering tradition holds that the 17 arches correspond to the 17 letters in "Napoléon Bonaparte," though this may be a retrospective story rather than a genuine design intention. Napoleon himself never saw the bridge.

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