Pont Lesdiguières, Stone bridge in Claix, France.
The Pont Lesdiguières is a stone bridge crossing the Drac River in Claix in eastern Dauphiné. Its single arch rises approximately 16 meters above the water, spanning roughly 46 meters in length.
François de Bonne de Lesdiguières, Lieutenant General of Dauphiné, ordered the bridge built; Louis Brisset constructed it between 1608 and 1610, and it opened to traffic in 1611. It was classified as a monument historique on 27 May 1898, among the first protected monuments in Isère. A lower bridge built just downstream in 1873 diverted traffic from the old crossing.
The bridge has been a crossing point for travelers and merchants in the Dauphiné region since it was built. It connects two communities and remains part of how people move across this river valley.
The old bridge is closed to motor traffic and carries only pedestrians and cyclists, with a humpbacked roadway. A lowered bridge built in 1873 stands just downstream and now takes the road traffic, so the cycle path runs over it. Since 12 July 2010, sixteen spotlights light the old arch after nightfall.
The old guardhouse beside the bridge is still called the salle Mandrin, after the smuggler who, by one account, attacked the salt-tax officials there in 1754; another version has him leaping from the deck on horseback to escape capture.
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