Pont Lafayette

About

The Lafayette Bridge in Lyon is the third oldest bridge on the Rhône. In 1826, a first bridge, the Charles-X Bridge or Concert Bridge, was built from 1828. 214 m long and 13 m wide, it consists of a wooden frame based on abutments and masonry piles.

On September 5, 1829, Lafayette made a triumphal entrance into Lyon by crossing the bridge, which was renamed in his honour on September 19, 1830. He was taken by floods in 1840 and then in 1856. Too old, it was replaced in 1890 by the current bridge, with a metal structure resting on stone piles of Porcieu-Amblagnieu.

The batteries are decorated with copies of the bronzes of the Coustou brothers, the Rhône by Guillaume Coustou, and the Saône by Nicolas Coustou, whose originals were placed until 2021 on both sides of the statue of Louis XIV Place Bellecour. The central arch, destroyed in September 1944 by German troops just before their evacuation from the city, was rebuilt and the bridge reopened in 1946. On May 24, 1968, it was the scene of the most violent clashes in May 68 in Lyon with the death of police commissioner René Lacroix, who marked a turning point in the protest movement...