Bridge of Sighs  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

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The Bridge of Sighs (Italian: Ponte dei Sospiri) is a bridge in Venice, northern Italy . The enclosed bridge is made of white limestone and has windows with stone bars. It passes over the Rio di Palazzo and connects the old prisons to the interrogation rooms in the Doge's Palace. It was designed by Antoni Contino (whose uncle Antonio da Ponte had designed the Rialto Bridge), and built in 1602.

The view from the Bridge of Sighs was the last view of Venice that convicts saw before their imprisonment. The bridge name, given by Lord Byron in the 19th century, comes from the suggestion that prisoners would sigh at their final view of beautiful Venice out the window before being taken down to their cells. In reality, the days of inquisitions and summary executions were over by the time the bridge was built and the cells under the palace roof were occupied mostly by small-time criminals. In addition, little could be seen from inside the Bridge due to the stone grills covering the windows.

A local legend says that lovers will be granted everlasting love and bliss if they kiss on a gondola at sunset under the bridge and be in love and happily married to a blissful husband or wife for the rest of your life.

The bridge and the walls of the palazzo facing towards the bridge are under construction and currently the view does not live up to the expectations.

Cultural references

The following are mentions and references of the Bridge of Sighs in popular culture:

Literature

• The Bridge of Sighs is featured on the cover of Cornelia Funke's novel, The Thief Lord.
• Bridge of Sighs is the name of a Novel by Richard Russo written in 2007.
• The Bridge is prominently featured in Aria book 1 - navigation (chapter) 3 titled 'Bridge of Sighs'
• Edgar Allan Poe made explicit mention of the Bridge in his short story The Assignation.

Music

• "The Bridge of Sighs" is the name of songs by Georgia Gibbs, Shakti, Robin Trower (and an album of the same name), Opeth (Robin Trower Cover), and Denise Ho.
• The Bridge of Sighs is namechecked in the song 'Itchycoo Park' by the Small Faces.

Film & television

• The Bridge of Sighs features as a plot device in the 1979 film "A Little Romance", starring Diane Lane and Sir Laurence Olivier. A teenage couple hears the story that when lovers kiss at sunset under the Bridge of Sighs, their love is destined to last forever, and run away to Venice to cement their relationship.

Video games

• The Bridge of Sighs was the name of a level in Homeworld.

See also

The name "Bridge of Sighs" has since been applied by association to other similar covered bridges around the world, including:

• Puente de los Suspiros ("Bridge of Sighs" in Spanish), a bridge in the city of Barranco, Lima, Peru
• A bridge in Cambridge, England
• A bridge in Oxford, England
• A bridge in Stockholm, Sweden
• A bridge in Frankfurt am Main, Germany
• Pittsburgh's, 1884 National Historic Landmark connecting the Allegheny County Courthouse proper to the jail building, both designed by American gothic architect H.H. Richardson.
• The bridge which spans the Swan Boat pond in Boston's Public Garden is sometimes jokingly referred to as the "Bridge of Size," a play on words based on the small bridge's vastly overbuilt look
• The ramp leading to the slaughterhouse in the old Chicago stockyards
• The Bridge of Sighs served as a model for a similarly 1884 constructed bridge between the Allegheny County Courthouse and the old county jail in downtown Pittsburgh, USA. It has been deemed a National Historic Landmark
• A skyway in Szeged, Hungary which connects the city hall with the Csongrád county archives building. It got its name because the archives building was once the tax office, and citizens had to cross this bridge from the city hall.

Bridge of Sighs is also a name that has been applied to the Virginia Street Bridge in Reno, Nevada. It is legendary for being the place where newly-divorced women coming from the Washoe County Courthouse would toss their wedding rings into the Truckee River.