Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The viaduct of Austerlitz is a railway bridge built between 1903 and 1904 to allow line 5 of the Paris metro to cross the Seine. Directed by the Levallois-Perret Construction Company (former Gustave Eiffel establishments), it adopts a bold structure: two parabolic steel arches of 140 metres in range, without intermediate pillars, so as not to impede river navigation. The rails, placed directly on the deck, avoid the weight of a ballast, while the stone piles support the whole.

The decoration of the viaduct, entrusted to the architect Jean Camille Formigé, incorporates marine motifs (fish, anchors, tridents) and the arms of Paris, reflecting its link with the river. The engineer Louis Biette oversees the works, assisted by Fulgence Bienvenüe and Maurice Koechlin, who also collaborated with the Eiffel Tower. The helical ramp on the right bank is built by Daydé and Pillé.

Joined historic monuments in 1986, the viaduct was reinforced in 1936 to support heavier metros. In 2000, he was illuminated to celebrate the centenary of the metro and received the Modern Heritage Award. Major renovations in 2013 (anti-corrosion paint, consolidation) temporarily interrupted line 5. Five-year inspection and ongoing monitoring ensure its sustainability.

With a range of 140 metres, the viaduct of Austerlitz exceeds that of the Alexander III Bridge (1900) and remains a symbol of the Parisian engineering of the early twentieth century. It connects the train station of Austerlitz to the Quai de la Rapée, via a 75 metre radius curved structure, and is served by the eponymous metro stations.

The sculptures adorning the batteries are the work of Gustave Michel, while the metal structure, made of laminated soft steel, bears witness to the technical advances of the era. The viaduct also illustrates the economic choice of the time: building a bridge rather than a sub-fluvial tunnel, which is less expensive for the metro network.

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