Passerelle Simone-de-Beauvoir

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Passerelle Simone-de-Beauvoir
The passerelle and the BNF seen from the right bank (July 2006)
Crosses	Seine
Locale	Paris, France
Design	Lenticular (lens shaped) structure with rotational anchorages in the supports
Total length	304 m
Width	12 m
Completion date	2006
Opening date	2006
Coordinates	48°51′00″N 02°20′00″E / 48.85, 2.333333

The Passerelle Simone-de-Beauvoir (initially known by the provisional name of passerelle Bercy-Tolbiac) is a bridge solely for pedestrians and cyclists across the Seine in Paris. It is the 37th bridge on the Seine to Paris. It is located between the bridges of Pont de Bercy and Pont de Tolbiac and links up the 12th and 13th arrondissements of Paris. Its nearest Paris Metro station is Quai de la Gare.

1 History
2 Timeline
3 Bibliography
4 External links

[edit] History

The "lentille" crossing Paris on 30 November 2005.

Made in the Eiffel (Eiffel Constructions métalliques) factory in Alsace, the central main span was transported by canal, the North Sea, the English Channel and French rivers (with difficulties due to sluices being too narrow), and finally crossed Paris on a barge on November 30, 2005 to its final destination. It was hoisted in two hours on January 29, 2006, around three o'clock in the morning. This part was to be the central element (named the "peltinée" by its architects, Feichtinger Architectes, under Dietmar Feichtinger) of the rest of the bridge, and was a steel span, weighing 650 tons, and 106 m long and 12,m wide.

View from the Passerelle, looking west towards the BNF

The passerelle is characteristic of its time and distinguishes itself from the three other footbridges that already cross the Seine in Paris (Passerelle Solférino, Pont des Arts, and Passerelle Debilly). The geometry of its members reduces shearing. This is a lens-shaped structure. Its rotational anchorage on its supports brings its structural height back down to the different levels of the quais at either end. Its five crossings cross the river without supports in water and rejoin the streets on the high bank (directly into the parvise of the Bibliothèque François-Mitterrand (new Bibliothèque nationale de France), on the rive gauche (left bank), and directly into the parc de Bercy on the rive droite (right bank), with double supports on the lower banks (quai François-Mauriac on the rive gauche, and quai de Bercy on the rive droite). A protected area mid-way at the central lens allows pedestrians to shelter from the rain.

In March 2005, Bertrand Delanoë, the mayor of Paris, proposed naming it "Passerelle Simone de Beauvoir" and inaugurated it on July 13, 2006 in the presence of de Beauvoir's adoptive daughter Sylvie Le Bon-de Beauvoir.