Pont d'Arcole

The Pont d'Arcole is a bridge in Paris over the River Seine. It is served by the Metro station Hôtel de Ville.
The need for a bridge communicating between place de Grève and the île de la Cité had been felt for years. Called the passerelle de Grève or the pont de l'Hôtel-de-Ville for the first two years of its life, its present name - according to the most generally accepted hypothesis - comes from the Battle of the Bridge of Arcole, in which Napoleon personally led a charge waving the tricolour and defeated the Austrians in 1796. The other hypothesis is that a young republican killed in the "Three Glorious Days" of the July Revolution - cut down as he planted the tricolour - cried "Remember that I am called Arcole" just before his death, presumably as he was imitating Bonaparte's action. This account is reported in the English guide "Paris; Its Historical Buildings and Revolutions"

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