Pont de l'Alma

Stand near the middle of the bridge and listen. Below you, the Seine moves slowly, a wide band of grey-green water. Tour boats pass underneath with a low diesel hum, and their loudspeakers carry fragments of commentary up through the air. Traffic rushes behind you. To the west, the Eiffel Tower rises above the rooftops, close enough to feel like part of the view. This is the Pont de l'Alma, a crossing that most people use without a second thought.

Many visitors come here for the view. A smaller number come for a stone soldier who has been watching the river for more than a century and a half. A third group comes for a golden flame on the right bank, and for a story that is still painful to many people. All three belong to this place. Let us take them one at a time, starting with the name.

The bridge is named after a battle. In 1854, during the Crimean War, French and British troops fought the Russian army on the banks of the Alma River, on the Crimean peninsula in the Black Sea. The allies won. Emperor Napoleon the Third, who ruled France at the time, wanted Paris to remember the victory. A new bridge was built across the Seine, and it opened in 1856, only two years after the battle.

That first bridge was not the one under your feet today. It was made of stone, with arches, and it carried four large statues of soldiers on its piers. Each statue showed a different type of fighting man from the Crimean campaign. There was a grenadier, an artilleryman, a foot soldier, and a Zouave. Together they turned an ordinary river crossing into a monument to the army. Parisians grew used to them, and one of them became a local celebrity.

By the twentieth century, the old stone bridge had a problem. It had sunk and shifted over time, and it could no longer handle modern traffic. In the early 1970s, the city replaced it with the steel bridge you see now. It crosses the river in a single long span, with no supports standing in the middle of the water. That design made life easier for the boats. It also meant there was no longer room for four statues.

Three of the soldiers left Paris. They were moved to other towns in France, where they still stand today. Only one stayed behind. Look down at the upstream side of the bridge, on the pier near the right bank. There he is... the Zouave. He wears a short jacket, very wide baggy trousers, and a small cap. The Zouaves were a light infantry corps of the French army, first formed in North Africa, and famous for that unusual uniform.

Here is the surprise. For generations, Parisians have used this statue to measure floods. When the Seine rises, people come to the bridge and check how far the water has climbed up the Zouave. If it reaches his feet, the paths along the river begin to close. If it reaches his thighs, river traffic is usually stopped. Newspapers report it. Neighbours talk about it. He is an unofficial flood gauge, and everybody in the city understands the code.

The worst flood in modern Paris history came in 1910. That winter, the Seine rose so high that the water reached the Zouave's shoulders. Streets turned into canals. People rowed boats through neighbourhoods and crossed on wooden walkways. More recently, in 2016 and again in 2018, the river climbed well up his legs, and the city watched him closely again. So when you look at this soldier, you are also looking at a record of the river's moods.

Now turn toward the right bank, at the northern end of the bridge. On a small square above the road tunnel, you will see a large golden flame on a dark pedestal. It is a full-size copy of the flame held by the Statue of Liberty in New York. It was given to Paris in 1989 as a symbol of friendship between France and the United States. It also honours the French craftsmen who helped restore the original statue.

The flame took on a second meaning in 1997. On the 31st of August that year, Diana, Princess of Wales, died after a car crash in the tunnel directly beneath this square. In the days that followed, people from around the world came here with flowers, candles, letters, and photographs. They chose the flame as a place to grieve, even though it was never built for her. In 2019, the city officially named the square Place Diana.

Even today, you may notice small tributes around the base of the flame. Sometimes there are flowers. Sometimes there are notes, or pieces of ribbon. Some visitors stand quietly. Others take a photo and move on. It is an unusual kind of memorial, created by ordinary people rather than by an architect or a committee. That is part of what makes it moving. The meaning came first, and the official name came later.

Around you, the neighbourhood has its own character. Just upstream on the right bank, the long tour boats load passengers for trips along the Seine. Behind you runs Avenue Montaigne, lined with fashion houses. On the left bank, close to the bridge, is the entrance to the museum of the Paris sewers, where you can walk through real tunnels under the city. A short walk west along the river takes you toward the Musée du quai Branly and the Eiffel Tower.

Before you go, look once more at the water. Watch where it meets the Zouave's stone base, and notice how calm it seems. Then look west at the tower, and north at the gold of the flame catching the light. A battle far away, a river that floods, a gift between two nations, and a death that shocked the world... all of them meet on this one plain steel span. Take your time crossing. The soldier is not going anywhere.