Pont de Recouvrance explained

Bridge Name:	Pont de Recouvrance
Carries:	Rue de Siam
Crosses:	Penfeld River
Locale:	Brest, Brittany, France
Design:	Vertical-lift bridge
Material:	Reinforced concrete, steel
Mainspan:	88m (289feet)
Height:	70m
Begin:	1950
Complete:	1954
Open:	1954
Coordinates:	48.3844°N -4.4965°W

The Pont de Recouvrance (in French pronounced as /pɔ̃ də ʁəkuvʁɑ̃s/) is a vertical-lift bridge in Brest, France, across the river Penfeld. Opened on 17 July 1954, it was the largest vertical-lift bridge in Europe until the opening of the Rouen Pont Gustave-Flaubert in 2008. It links the bottom of the rue de Siam to the quartier de Recouvrance, replacing a swing bridge (the pont National) destroyed by Allied bombardment in 1944.

Each pylon is 70m high, and the 525-tonne lift span is 88m long.

Trolley bus

The bridge was crossed by trolleybuses from its opening in 1954 until the closure of the Brest trolleybus system, in 1970.^[1]

Trams

The lift span was renovated in 2011 to allow the new tram line to cross the bridge. The tram line opened by July 2012.^[2]

Sources

• Le pont levant de Brest, brochure edited by La Télémécanique Électrique (1954 ?)

External links

• • Structurae

Notes and References

1. Haseldine, Peter (July–August 2010). "Two French closures" (40th anniversaries of). Trolleybus Magazine issue 292, pp. 74–75. National Trolleybus Association (UK). ISSN 0266-7452.
2. [Today's Railways Europe]