Pont d'Austerlitz

The Pont d Austerlitz owes its name to the decisive 1805 victory of Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Austerlitz. The original structure, completed in 1807, looked quite different from what you see today. It was built of stone and quickly became a necessity to connect the bustling Faubourg Saint Antoine on the right bank to the Jardin des Plantes on the left bank. Over the following century, the bridge proved unable to keep pace with the growing volume of city traffic, forcing engineers to repeatedly rethink its design and capacity.