Pont de l'Alma

The Pont de l Alma was commissioned by Napoleon the Third to celebrate the French victory at the Battle of the Alma during the Crimean War. Completed in eighteen fifty-six, the structure was originally adorned with four statues representing different types of soldiers from that conflict. These stone figures included a grenadier, a skirmisher, an artilleryman, and the iconic Zouave. When the bridge underwent a complete reconstruction in the nineteen seventies to accommodate heavier traffic, three of these statues were relocated, leaving the Zouave to stand alone as the bridge's sole remaining military guardian.