The Pont de Recouvrance () is a vertical-lift bridge in

Brest Brest may refer to: Places *Brest, Belarus **Brest Region **Brest Airport **Brest Fortress *Brest, Kyustendil Province, Bulgaria *Břest, Czech Republic *Brest, France **Arrondissement of Brest **Brest Bretagne Airport ** Château de Brest *Brest, ...

, France, across the river

Penfeld The Penfeld,The ''d'' was added in the 17th century by a naval engineer influenced by the German word ''feld'' - the name is masculine in the Breton language. (Breton: ''Penfell'') is a French coastal river. The town of Brest, in Finistère, has g ...

. Opened on 17 July 1954, it was the largest vertical-lift bridge in Europe until the opening of the

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of ...

Pont Gustave-Flaubert The Pont Gustave-Flaubert ( en, Gustave Flaubert Bridge) is a vertical-lift bridge over the river Seine in Rouen, Seine-Maritime, Normandy, France. It was officially opened on 25 September 2008 after four years of construction. The bridge itself c ...

in 2008. It links the bottom of the

rue de Siam The ''rue de'' Siam (or ''Siam'' Street, br, Straed Siam) is the main arterial street of Brest, a port city in Brittany, France. Its name comes from the arrival of three ambassadors led by Kosa Pan, sent by the King of Siam on the 29 June 1686 ...

to the quartier de Recouvrance, replacing a swing bridge (the

pont National The pont National (named pont Napoléon-III from its construction until 1870) is a road and rail bridge across the Seine in Paris, to the east of the 12th and 13th arrondissements. With a total length of 188.5m, it is made up of 5 masonry arche ...

) destroyed by Allied bombardment in 1944. Each pylon is 70m high, and the 525-tonne lift span is 88m long.

Trolley bus

The bridge was crossed by

trolleybus A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or troll ...

es from its opening in 1954 until the closure of the Brest trolleybus system, in 1970.Haseldine, Peter (July–August 2010). "Two French closures" (40th anniversaries of). ''Trolleybus Magazine'' issue 292, pp. 74–75. National Trolleybus Association (UK). ISSN 0266-7452.

Trams

The lift span was renovated in 2011 to allow the new tram line to cross the bridge. The tram line opened by July 2012. Today's Railways Europe No. 214, p15

References

Sources

*''Le pont levant de Brest'', brochure edited by La Télémécanique Électrique (1954 ?)

External links

*
Structurae
{{DEFAULTSORT:Recouvrance Buildings and structures in Brest, France Bridges in France Vertical lift bridges Transport in Brittany