Description of the attraction
Debiilly's pedestrian bridge was built, like the Eiffel Tower, for the World's Fair, only in 1900, and was the second metal structure to illustrate the technological advancements of the era. In a sense, he repeated the fate of the tower - it was conceived as a temporary structure, but remained forever.
Art was emphasized in the design of the second World Exhibition. The luxurious Grand Palais, Petit Palais, the Alexander III bridge appeared - all in the magnificent Beauz-art style. On the embankment near the Eiffel Tower there were grandiose thematic pavilions, and opposite, on the right bank, the recreated medieval quarter "Old Paris" went to the Pont de Alma. To help visitors of the exhibition get from the pavilion of the army and navy to the "Old Paris", and this temporary bridge was built, as it was believed at that time.
Its industrial style didn't quite fit into the design concept. Architect Louis-Jean Resal put a metal frame on two stone piers and decorated it with dark green ceramic tiles, which were supposed to create the impression of rippling on the waves. The bridge looked pretty brutal.
Perhaps the Parisians consoled themselves with the fact that this crossing, like the tower, was here temporarily. However, after six years, the bridge was only slightly moved, after eight - they gave it a name in honor of the French general Jean-Louis Debilli, just in time for the centenary of his death in the Battle of Jena. The bridge still stood and stood. In 1941, however, a threat loomed over him - the president of the architectural society disparaged him as a forgotten accessory of a long past event. However, the building survived safely until 1966, when it was finally included in the additional register of historical monuments along with the Alexander III bridge and the Austerlitz viaduct (metro bridge over the Seine).
In 1991, the bridge was repainted, and in 1997, the pavement was renewed with tropical hardwood pavement. Nowadays it is unlikely that people walking along it remember that it was once temporary or inappropriate. Now it is just a beautiful and convenient footbridge.
