Photographs of the Bridges
Passerelle Senghor, Paris, France
Between the Pont Royal and the Pont de la Concorde is another sculptural, modern pedestrian bridge, The Passerelle Lèopold-Sèdar-Senghor is a sculptural, modern pedestrian bridge in the middle of the busiest tourist area of Paris. Named after the first president of Senegal, the Passerelle Senghor was built in 1999 of steel I-beam construction. The Passerelle Senghor is not adorned with decoration. However, the functionality of the bridge is extremely unusual.
The riverfront along the Seine in central Paris has two levels, with the quays at street level being about 20 feet higher than the walkways along the river. Except for the Passerelle Senghor, all of the Seine bridges extend from quay to quay, and the lower river level can only be accessed by occasional stairways that punctuate the walls that confine the river. The Passerelle Senghor, though, acts as six bridges in one. From a distance, you can only see the curve of the upper deck extending from quay to quay. Underneath the curve is a complicated substructure that does not obviously reveal how the deck is supported. Once you are on it, though, you can see what is going on. Below the main deck, in the middle of the bridge, is a second lower deck extending from river level on one side to river level on the other side. This lower arch has much steeper sides than the upper arch so that the apex of each arch meets in the middle of the bridge.
With this unusual construction, you can cross the bridge from quay to quay, riverside to riverside, or from a quay on one side to the riverside on the other, and vice-versa. The lower deck on the northern end is even more complex, as it does more than just exit to the right or left onto the riverwalk. In addition to right and left options, the lower deck also leads directly through an archway under the quay into the gardens of the Tuileries. While the complexity of the structure detracts from its aesthetics when viewed from a distance, the effect becomes charming once you are on the bridge and get a chance to see how it works.
There is a more detailed description of an entire walking tour of all of the Seine bridges in Paris, including the Passerelle Senghor, in Chapter 9 of my book, Bridgespotting: A Guide to Bridges that Connect People, Places, and Times.
