Pont Saint-Christophe, Steel bridge in Lorient, France

Pont Saint-Christophe is a flat steel girder bridge over the Scorff, linking Lorient and Lanester. Its straight top edge and gently curved underside rest on low piers and an embankment, with a slim grey railing along the deck and slender lamp posts, including one tall red pole with a curved black arm and spherical lamp.

The first crossing structure at this location was built in 1823, replacing a ferry service that had been vital for the area. German forces constructed a temporary wooden bridge during World War II, traces of which remain visible today.

The name comes from the Saint-Christophe chapel built on the Ploemeur bank in the 15th century, not from the bridge itself. The left bank belonged to the Caudan parish, where a settlement called Kerentrech, 'the village of the crossing', grew around the ferry. Ferries ran here until 10 March 1823, when the first bridge opened.

The bridge carries the road between Lorient and Lanester, with walkways on either side of the roadway. The remains of the wartime wooden bridge lie about a kilometre upstream at Le Roze, on the Scorff, and appear at low tide; they can also be picked out on 1950 aerial photographs of geoportail.fr.

About a kilometre upstream of the current bridge, near the spot called Le Roze, the wooden bridge built under the Occupation was burned by German troops in early August 1944 to cover their retreat towards Lorient. Its remains appear on the Scorff at low tide and on 1950 aerial photographs.