Concorde Bridge, which connects Place de la Concorde to the Bourbon palace on the Quai d'Orsay, located in a very beautiful place, but by itself does not attract much attention. Wide, with modest lanterns and balustrade, it looks pretty simple, without pomp. Meanwhile, in the splendor of the old days he had, but not the main thing: the Concorde bridge built of stones of the Bastille.

Bastille, a prison for noble prisoners fell July 14, 1789. The next day it was decided to demolish it. The work continued until 1791, when they left the mountain rock. Stones allowed for the construction of the bridge leading to the Place Louis XV.

The crossing was planned back in 1755, when the construction area, and before that there went fallow. The architect Jean-Rodolphe Perrone had already begun to build the bridge (at the same time he called the name of Louis XVI), but by the time of the demolition of the Bastille material for construction has not yet been fully purchased. So the destruction of the fortress made it possible to finish the bridge as one of the first buildings of the new republic. Of course, he was immediately renamed - to bridge the Revolution, as well as the area in which the guillotine was installed.

In 1810, Napoleon ordered on both sides of the bridge the statues of eight French generals killed during the military campaigns of the First Empire. During the restoration of the Bourbons returned to its former name of the bridge and decided to remove the statue generals. Instead, put twelve colossal white marble sculpture depicting the four great Ministerial (Suger, Sully, Richelieu and Colbert), four royal generals (Du Gesklina, Bayard, Condé and Tyurena) and four naval officers (Dyugua-Truina, Duquesne, Suffren, and Tourville) . The bridge began to look very impressive, but the collection of statues proved too heavy, posing a threat of collapse. When Louis Philippe I sculpture was moved to Versailles, and at the same time the bridge was given another name - again on behalf of the area, which had already been Concorde.

More than anything special about the bridge did not happen - it expanded between 1930 and 1932, keeping the original shape and neoclassical architecture. Now it is the busiest bridge in Paris. It is unlikely that the drivers crossing the Seine on it, remember that ride on the rocks of the Bastille.