Pont Alexandre III is a low steel arch across the Seine, built for Paris’s 1900 Universal Exhibition and named for the Russian tsar whose son laid its first stone. Its gilded Pegasi, river nymphs and broad ceremonial axis connect the Invalides with the Grand and Petit Palais.
Quick facts
The bridge was inaugurated by President Émile Loubet on 14 April 1900, at the opening of the Universal Exhibition.
Engineers Jean Résal and Amédée d’Alby designed its single steel arch, roughly 109 metres long, with no central pier.
Four corner pylons carry gilded Pegasus-and-Fame groups; copper river figures represent the Seine and the Neva.
Get directions to Pont Alexandre III. Confirm the visitor entrance and current access with the venue before travelling.
Audio guide
Listen to this place’s guide.
Guide
Pont Alexandre III turns a practical crossing into a grand entrance. Beneath its gilded sculpture is a remarkably low steel arch; around it, lamps, river figures and four monumental pylons frame one of Paris’s most carefully staged views. The bridge belongs to Paris’s 7th and 8th arrondissements, though the catalog groups it under Paris. It was built for the Universal Exhibition of 1900, linking the Invalides side of the Seine with the new exhibition palaces on the Champs-Élysées side.
Continue exploring
Discover the full story
Keep reading with a travel pass and explore every full guide and tour.
UpgradeMore places in Paris
Petit Palais
Built for the 1900 Exposition Universelle, Charles Girault’s Petit Palais became the City of Paris Museum of Fine Arts in 1902. Its curved galleries circle a garden court, while the collection grew from municipal purchases into a broad public art museum through major bequests.
Grand Palais
Built for Paris’s 1900 World’s Fair, the Grand Palais pairs an immense glass-roofed nave with a sculpted Beaux-Arts exterior. Repeatedly adapted for exhibitions, wartime service, sport, and public culture, it reopened fully after restoration in 2025.
Place de la Concorde
Place de la Concorde occupies a ceremonial crossroads between the Tuileries, Champs-Élysées and Seine. Its obelisk, twin fountains and eight city statues frame a public square reshaped from royal monument to Revolutionary stage and later civic junction.
Musée de l’Orangerie
Musée de l’Orangerie was built as a winter shelter for the Tuileries’ orange trees, then became home to Monet’s Water Lilies and the Walter-Guillaume collection. Its daylight-filled oval rooms turn painting into an environment, while lower galleries connect it to modern art in Paris.
Hôtel des Invalides
Hôtel des Invalides began as a home and hospital for veterans, then grew into a military museum and memorial complex. Its gilded Dome holds Napoleon’s tomb, while the Institution Nationale des Invalides continues the site’s founding work of caring for people affected by war.
Musée des Égouts de Paris
The Musée des Égouts de Paris takes visitors into working galleries beneath the Alma bridge, where street plaques, cleaning tools, and models reveal how Paris built and maintains its water and sewer systems.