Pont de la Gabarre, Major road bridge in Les Abymes, Guadeloupe, France

The Pont de la Gabarre is a road bridge over the Rivière Salée, linking Les Abymes on Grande-Terre with Baie-Mahault on Basse-Terre. It carries the Route nationale 1, which here has the form of an expressway, between the Jaille and Camp Dugommier districts, a few metres from the Pointe-à-Pitre boundary and the Gabarre district. The concrete and metal span rests on rows of cylindrical piers standing in the water, with a balustraded railing along the deck and two boxy structures rising mid-span.

From 1765 a gabarre, a rowed boat pulled along cables, carried horses and riders across the Rivière Salée; drownings led to a floating bridge in 1806, called pont de la Gabarre or pont de l'Union. In 1929 the Guadeloupean engineer Louis Douldat designed a single-lane metal bridge built by the Eiffel workshops. Too narrow, it was replaced in the 1950s by a twin bridge a few metres north, later widened to six lanes; the old span is now for pedestrians and cyclists.

The bridge takes its name from gabarre vessels that ferried horses and riders between the islands starting in 1765. This traditional transport method shaped how people moved across the water for generations before any fixed crossing existed.

The Pont de la Gabarre carries the Route nationale 1 between Baie-Mahault and Les Abymes, with traffic estimated at 100,000 vehicles per day in 2011. It is one of only two road crossings between Grande-Terre and Basse-Terre, alongside the Pont mobile de l'Alliance. The 1929 single-lane metal bridge is now reserved for pedestrians and cyclists.

The original 1929 Eiffel-era bridge section remains today as a separate pedestrian and cycling path. This historic metalwork offers a tangible view of early engineering work and shows how the original single-lane structure was adapted into modern transportation infrastructure.