Angers · FR
Pont de la Basse Chaîne
The Pont de la Basse-Chaîne is a road bridge that throws the heart of Angers across the Maine, linking the old riverside quarter of la Doutre on the left bank with the right bank, where the great medieval Château d'Angers rises on its rock. It is a quiet, working crossing in reinforced concrete and dressed stone rather than an ornamented monument, but the spot it occupies is one of the most storied stretches of river in western France.
What gives this bridge its hold on visitors is the drama layered beneath it. Three successive bridges have stood here, and the very first—an elegant iron-cable suspension bridge—came down in a storm on 16 April 1850 as a French infantry battalion marched across it, drowning more than two hundred men. That disaster made the Basse-Chaîne a landmark in the history of engineering and is still remembered by a commemorative plaque on the bridge today.