Simone de BeauvoirPedestrian Bridge

Feichtinger ArchitectesParis, July 2006

The pedestrian bridge with a length of 304 meters links the new districts of Paris - Bercy and Tolbiac - and at the same time the new national french library with the Park Tolbiac

The new footbridge maintains the coherence of this unusually open Parisian space by reaching across the river in a single, continuous span, without intermediate supports.

The criss-crossing of the pathways permits the free span of 194 meters. Several possibilities linked with different perspectives are offered to the pedestrian while crossing

the bridge.

The bridge is composed of three parts. It comprises a main central span across the Seine, coupled with two secondary spans across the urban freeways to either side, connected to

the French National Library and the Tolbiac Park.

The freeway bridges, relatively independent from the central span, are paired beams, simply-supported across a 35 m span, which use underslung bowstring ties to stiffen the

compression deck

Two arches and two catenaries placed in parallel 

form the principal span.