Pont Wilson and the Rue Nationale

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Pont Wilson

Pont Wilson is the centre bridge and main crossing for the Loire leading across from the north to rue Nationale, the main shopping street; this is a replica of the 18th century bridge which collapsed suddenly in 1978. This work enabled them to recover a world war II unexploded bomb weighing 500kg.

The bridge is 434m. long and 14.6m. wide; it rests on 15 arches each 25m. in width.

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It had been created by Mathieu Bayeux, Inspector General of bridges who led the work between 1764 from 1774. Jean de Voglie, well known architect from Saumur, completed the work. The bridge had been built from hard rock found in this part of the Loire; several mishaps took place - in 1789 4 arches crumbled; on 18th June 1940 the French army in retreat threw one of the arches, stones and pieces from the bridge were projected into the town damaging tiles and windows in particular those if Saint Julien, one piece weighing 200kg. reached the rue Corneille; lastly on 9th April 1978 towards 9 o’clock at night, ot was the second arch this time which fell.
Rue Nationale

The old rue Royale, 700m. in length, form the main axis of the town. Until that time the town went east-west along the river and this was to be at right angles, norht -south, similar to the plans for Orléans and Blois.

It was built in 1765 from the plans made by Jean Cadet de Limay, who forsaw a different form of opening onto the street with houses behind a courtyard and a gaate opening to the front (still to be seen in numbers 59 and 68). This took a long time to build, and was mostly destroyed in the bombing of June 1940. In the course of reconstruction the street was widened to allow for the increase in traffic.

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