Before the bridges At this point of the Seine, there was a ford which extended an old Roman road linking
Montmartre to Mont Valérien. In 1140, Abbot
Suger created a ferry there, contributing to the development of a fishing village and a small port, the origin of Neuilly (Port Nully), and the route to
Normandy.
Le pont Henri The first bridge on the site was in wood, built after the fall of
Henry IV and
Marie de Médicis's carriage on 6 June 1606. Around 5 p.m., a rainy day, the carriage of Henri IV and Marie de Medici, dragged by the fall of two of the horses, fell from the ferry crossing the Seine in Neuilly on the way back from the castle of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. The queen and the three royal children, who are all under four years old, were brought up from the bottom of the water by the king himself and the men of his retinue. As a result, Henri IV had the first wooden bridge of sixteen arches built at the axis of the current rue du Pont, the Pont Henri. To cross it, you have to pay a toll. In 1638, a flood destroyed the bridge, which was then rebuilt with fourteen arches. It was built as an extension of the
Avenue de Neuilly (a historic axis, therefore a little further south than the old bridge) and inaugurated on 22 September 1772 in the presence of
King Louis XV, who crossed it. The finishing touches lasted until 1780, when the wooden bridge was destroyed. Between 1935 and 1942, this bridge, which had become unsuitable for the increase in traffic, was gradually rebuilt. The architect Bigot directed the work.
New metal bridge The second bridge was demolished between 1936 and 1942 and replaced in 1942 with a metal bridge by Louis-Alexandre Lévy and the Daydé company. It was welded metal arches and rested on
ashlar masonry abutments. Its width was 35 metres, compared to 13 metres for the stone bridge. In 1992, its pedestrian sidewalks were narrowed to allow Line 1 to be added to the bridge and the bridge gave its name to the
nearby Métro station. The present bridge effectively consisted of two bridges. A 67 metre span between Neuilly-sur-Seine and the Île de Puteaux, as well as an 87 metre span between the Île de Puteaux and
Courbevoie. A pedestrian staircase in the middle of the bridge allows access to the Île de Puteaux. ==References==