A bridge to history

Of the 37 bridges that cross the Seine in Paris, the Pont Alexandre III might be the most decadently designed. Elements of Beaux-Arts and Art Nouveau styles harmonize here into an intricate work of art, its sculptures speckled with delicate gilding. It was named for Tsar Alexander III of Russia, who forged a historic alliance with France, and whose ill-fated son Nicholas II laid the span's cornerstone in 1896. At right, the legacy of another doomed emperor looms: the dome of Les Invalides, which caps the atrium housing Napoleon Bonaparte's tomb.