The Glow of Paris - Pont Saint-Michel

In Episode 2 of The Glow of Paris, Gary Zuercher explores the history of the Pont Saint-Michel, one of the most storied bridges spanning the Seine River.

First built in 1378 and once lined with medieval houses, the bridge has been destroyed by ice and floods, rebuilt in stone, and redesigned in 1857 during the modernization of Paris under Napoleon III and Georges-Eugène Haussmann.

The episode also examines the tragic events of October 17, 1961, when violence during an Algerian protest marked the bridge with one of the most painful chapters in modern Paris history.

Discover how the Pont Saint-Michel reflects both the beauty and the complex memory of Paris.

Transcript

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Welcome to the Global Paris Podcast. This is the second of our monthly podcasts about the 35 Paris bridges that span the Seine River, which runs through the center of Paris. There are bridges that whisper and there are bridges that remember. Today we stand on the Pont Saint-Michel, a bridge that has done medieval merchants, royal ambition, imperial symbolism, and tragedy. The first bridge here was constructed in 1378. Like most bridges of the Middle Ages, it was not simply a crossing, it was a street suspended over the water. Houses lined both sides, facing each other across the narrow roadway. Life happened here. Commer happened here. Laundry hung above the Seine. But the Seine is patient and unforgiving. In the severe winter of 1408, the ice crushed the bridge and its houses. A wooden replacement rose in 1416. Eight years later, in 1424, it was named the Pont Saint-Michel. The name was taken from its proximity to the chapel of Saint Michel. The chapel's gone now, but the name endures. The 1416 wooden bridge survived until 1547 when several boats struck its supports. The impact caused the collapse of the bridges and its 17 houses. Another wooden bridge followed in 1549, again lined with wood and plaster homes along its entire length. Floods weakened it in 1615, and ice flows finished the job in January 1616. In 1624, a stone replacement bridge was built, stronger, more permanent, and once again lined with houses. Thirty-two on each side. Imagine that. 64 homes standing above the river. It was the last bridge in Paris to have its houses removed. During later construction work, workers discovered an ancient copper plaque embedded in the foundations. It bore the effigy of Louis XIII and an inscription stating that on September 21, 1617, the king himself laid the foundation of the stone of the bridge. But the bridge we see today dates from another imperial vision. In 1857, during the reign of Napoleon III, the current Saint-Michel was opened. This was the era of sweeping modernization, the transformation of Paris under Baron Haussmann. Haussmann was appointed by Napoleon III to renovate the city and its bridges. The new design reduced the arches from four to three, allowing safer and smoother river traffic along the Seine. Engineers originally proposed a decorative scheme echoing the 17th century bridge. But Napoleon III intervened. The bridge would be required to carry the mark of the empire. Look carefully today, and you will see it. A capital N for Napoleon, encircled by laurel wreaths, the Imperial insignia carved into stone. The bridge then became not just infrastructure, but statement. And yet history would mark it again in a far darker ink. October 17, 1961. Remember that date, because for a very long time, it's a date that was basically erased from the memory of Paris. On October 17, 1961, during the Algerian War for Independence from France, an estimated 30,000 Algerians living in Paris gathered to protest peacefully. The demonstration had been organized by the Algerian National Liberation Front. The Algerians were protesting against a curfew imposed by Paris police chief Maurice Papon. As a side note, it's important to point out that then police chief Maurice Papon was a notorious figure. In 1998, 37 years after the Algerian protest, he was convicted of crimes against humanity because during World War II he was responsible for deporting more than 1,600 Jews from France to German concentration camps where most of them died. The Algerian protest of 1961 unfolded at the Place Saint-Michel, right beside the bridge, the Pont Saint-Michel. What followed was violence. The police response was brutal. Demonstrators were beaten into metro stations and right there around the Place Saint-Michel, many were shot, or just thrown directly from the Pont Saint Michel into the freezing River Seine, left to drown. One haunting photograph from that time shows a white banner draped across the Pont Saint-Michel reading Ici en Noir les Algériens, which says, Here we drown the Algerians. The following day, authorities reported only two deaths. After that night came decades of silence. The story of what happened on the Place Saint-Michel was, for years, essentially a state secret. It was flat out denied by officials. It went almost entirely unreported in the media. Finally, in 1998, the French government acknowledged 40 deaths. However, the estimates from experts who have studied it range anywhere from 32 to over 300. The true scale of the tragedy is still heavily debated today. Forty years later, Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoy placed a memorial plaque on the Pont Saint-Michel. It reads A la Memoir de Nombreux Algeriens, Touay, Lord de la Sanglante Repression de la Manifestaction Pacifique to 17 October 1961. Translated, it says, in memory of the numerous Algerians killed during the bloody suppression of the peaceful demonstrations of October 17th, 1961. Today, tourists cross the bridge, boats pass freely under its arches, the Latin quarter hums nearby. Notre Dame rises just downriver. But if you pause at the center, if you look into the slow current of the Seine, you may feel what Paris always teaches us. Beauty and sorrow coexist. The Pont Saint-Michel is not only stone and ornament, it is a memory suspended above water, and in the glow of Paris it endures. This has been the spellbinding history of just one of the Paris Bridges that I will bring to you in the upcoming monthly podcast. So join me in the Glow of Paris as I bring you these fascinating histories. Next month we will learn about another one of the Paris Bridges. For the Glow of Paris, this is Gary Zurger saying, See you soon. Bye bye.