Pont de Recouvrance, Vertical-lift bridge in Brest, France
The Pont de Recouvrance is a vertical-lift bridge over the Penfeld in Brest, linking the foot of rue de Siam to the Recouvrance quarter. It has two light-grey reinforced concrete pylons, each 70 m tall, formed of slim columns with horizontal cross-beams and a slot for the lifting deck. Between them runs a white steel truss span, 88 m long and 15 m wide, carrying the roadway at mid-height of the pylons.
After the previous bridge was destroyed in World War II, this new bridge opened in 1954 and became a symbol of the city's rebuilding. It represented a technical innovation for its era and showed Brest's determination to renew its infrastructure.
The bridge carries the name of the Recouvrance quarter on the right bank of the Penfeld, reached from the foot of rue de Siam. Trolleybuses crossed it from 1954 until Brest's trolleybus network closed in 1970, and since 2012 the tramway has run over the lift span toward Recouvrance.
You can cross the bridge on foot or by tram and watch the water below, which is especially interesting when the lift mechanism operates. Daytime visits work best when you can clearly see the structure and any boats passing underneath.
The lift span installed on 22 August 2011 was built in Belgium and brought to Brest by ship; it is 88 m long, 15 m wide and weighs 625 tonnes. It replaced a 538.7-tonne span built after the war by the Brest arsenal shipyards.
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