Pont Marie

You are standing before the Pont Marie, a structure that has spanned the Seine since the seventeenth century. When it was completed in 1635, the bridge was not merely a crossing point, but a residential street that supported approximately fifty houses along its length. These multi-story wooden dwellings created a narrow, tunnel-like passage for travelers, eventually leading to their demolition to prevent the structural strain that caused several arches to collapse during a major flood in 1658.