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VERNON GIVERNY ... PASSIONATELY
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The existence of a city bridge
over a river difficult to cross has often led to the development of the
town since it became an obliged passage at the crossing of the road along
the river and of the one that crosses it. This is what happened to Vernon,
a city founded in 920 but which became a strategic location when the king
of France and the king of England, also Duke of Normandy, opposed one
another as soon as the early 12th century.
We owe King Philip II (known in France as Philippe Auguste) the building of the first stone bridge, important remains of which can still be seen on the right bank. It may be necessary to recall the historic context briefly: At war with the English king, Richard I Lionhearted who also reigns over the western half of France, King Philip takes hold of some Anglo-Norman territories lying between Gisors (about 30 km North of Vernon) and Pacy-sur-Eure (10km South). In order to be able to defend these lands, he has a bridge built in Vernon so as to be able to move his troops easily. However, a bridge is also a very strategic place in a time when there are very few bridges : in Normandy, there exist only two in Pont de l'Arche and Rouen; on the French side there are also only two bridges between Vernon and Paris. Because of its strategic importance, the king heavily protected the bridge: at one end, there was the town surrounded by walls and its castle - from which still remains the keep, called Archive Tower. On the other bank there was a fortified bridgehead (today Tourelles Castle) and, on Talus island which also bears the bridge, a fortified tower completed the defence system. (The whole system can easily be observed on the print above showing Vernon in the 16th century.
The bridge was also an economic opportunity for the city that developed at the cross-roads of the East -West Paris - Rouen road and the North - South road, all the more as hardly had the bridge been built that it lost its military interest: as a matter of fact, in 1204 the whole of Normandy had become French and war withdrew from the district for a century and a half. King Philip, as was always done at the time, sold the rights to set up watermills and fisheries on the bridge. Soon five mills were built, two on the Vernonnet bank; i.e. the right bank (including the one that can still be seen today) and three on the Vernon side. The bridge used to rest on 25 arches (each of them, 10 or 12 metre wide) but we know that for centuries neither royal nor local authorities were able to maintain large civil engineering works such as this bridge properly; They were used until they were on the verge of collapsing, when intense repair work was then necessary. This is how the stone arches were gradually replaced by a superstructure made of wood resting on the piers. In 1830, there remained only eight stone arches (the ones supporting the mills).
Most of the piers, lacking maintenance, were often swept away by floods and the bridge was thus useless for several years. A ferry service would then ply between the two banks. (Do not think that this was specific to Vernon: Rouen, the second largest town in France was not able to maintain its bridge in the 16th century and they had had to organise one of these ferry services.
For instance, in 1651, after two arches had collapsed, the authorities decided to abandon the bridge and set up a ferry, which, at least apparently, was thought to be far cheaper than repairing the bridge. Very well… but the vicar of Vernonnet wrote on October 10, 1653: "On Friday, St Luke's day, 200 persons of all sexes and ages coming from Vernon got accidentally drowned when the ferry sank down."
The bridge was very low and the space under the arches was taken by the mill wheels and the fisheries so that sailing was a threat to boats. Only one arch, called the "sailing arch" - located on the Vernon side- was large enough to allow boats to sail under. Passing even this arch proved difficult. A civil engineer wrote in a report in 1812:" The current under the arch is so fast that this is where the utmost effort must be made in order to get through the cataract [!] while ensuring that every care is taken for the boat to keep exactly in the centre of the archway." It was necessary to maintain
about thirty tow horses and a hundred persons solely to enable the
passage of the boats under the bridge. (Municipal directives in 1794).
Napoléon III Bridge After 1840, important works were undertaken all along the river to tame it and make sailing easier: the bed was dredged, parts straightened, some islands removed, sluices were built, compensating reservoirs were established. Before these works, the Seine was a wild, untamed river, like the Loire today : it was dotted with islands, shoals and mud flats sandbanks, with important floods in winter and very low water in summer. The old print above on the page clearly shows the islands and sand-banks that dot the river bed. This is also the moment to recall the legend of Saint Adjutor in the 12th century : the saint would have miraculously appeased a whirlpool in the Seine very near Vernon, thus saving the life of many bargemen. To this miracle, one can also add the one worked by Saint Romain in Rouen who would have killed a monster which sank craft on the river. These are pious legends, nevertheless they suggest that sailing conditions did not use to be what they are today! However, all the works aimed at making navigation easier and enabling heavier and heavier boats to sail would have been useless, had the old bridge still remained - an obstacle across the river. A new bridge was inaugurated in 1861. Work had started in 1858 and the bridge was built a few meters upstream from the old one, in order to gain better stability. The bridge was composed
of 7 arches; it was 253 m long and 10 m wide. Once the bridge was completed, the section between Vernon and the island of the old one was destroyed .Of course the three mill owners (on the 3rd, 4th and 5th arches) received pecuniary compensation. As to the section between the island and Vernonnet, it was left unused and fell into ruin except for a few arches and the Old Mill which today bear testimony to what the medieval bridge used to look like.
Moving the bridge a few metres from the old one meant transforming the streets and roads leading to the bridge. Thus several little streets in the city centre were straightened and extended so as to create a new access road. The city Council called it 'Albuféra Street' "as a token of the city's gratitude for his [the Duke's] distinguished services as a Mayor to the city for six years".
Temporary bridges At first, the Germans set
up a pontoon bridge that had to be dismantled on January 13, 1941
because there was too much floating ice on the river. Then a real bridge was installed from Avril toJune 1941 and it was used until May 26, 1944 when the central section was destroyed by Allied bombings ( together with all the other bridges on the Seine between Paris and Rouen, so as to prevent - or at least to slow down - the coming of reinforcement troops on the future Normandy front.)
As early as 1945, a new temporary bridge was thrown. It was a Callender Hamilton-type bridge made up of long metal spans.
When it was decided to build the definitive bridge exactly where the temporary one was standing , new temporary piers had to be erected before shifting the Callender Hamilton bridge laterally onto them , so as to make room for the construction of the final bridge.
Todays's Clemenceau Bridge Built between 1950and 1954,
it is made of steel trusses covered with a reinforced concrete slab.
It is composed of three arches with two piers in the river, which
made it possible to deepen the river channel for better water flow. The bridge opened to traffic in November 1954 was inaugurated by the Prime Minister in January 1955.
If the bridge itself is
still able to carry today's traffic, its approaches are no longer
able to do so and, at certain hours of the day, there are long lines
of cars waiting on either side. Well then, when will there be a new bridge for us to be able to put a full stop on this page?
For more information about the medieval bridge and its surroundings today, you can refer to the 'Old Mill and Tourelles Castle' page (in the 'Discover Vernon and Giverny' section) .
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