le pont jacques chaban delmas

I'd seen photos, and thought 'meh'. Then I strolled up there on a gloriously sunny spring afternoon, along with what felt like three quarters of Bordeaux. And the bridge is actually seriously impressive when seen first-hand. Makes you wish you were an engineer.

It's a bridge. A shiny, hi-tech, high-rising bridge. Unless you're an engineer there's not much to get excited about. UNLESS: You're in that crazy kind of love where you want to put padlocks on bridges with your names on and throw the key in the river, like they do on the Pont des Arts in Paris... this is a relatively new custom in Bordeaux, so there is still plenty space for your lock. As you watch the bridge open with your padlock on it, try not to make a lame joke about your love, lifting me higher... too late! If you want to cross the river and see how beautiful Bordeaux is from the other side, don't take this bridge, use the Pont de Pierre. Recommended.

This bridge has to be seen in action to be believed. Check out the Bordeaux Tourist website for the schedule of when the bridge is to rise. The whole central section of the bridge rises on hydraulic lifts that are operated from the top of one of the four towers. Spectacular at night with the lights of the ships below and the multitude of city lights reflected in the river!

This striking bridge has a central section with 4 concrete pylons which enables it to lift up the three parallel roadways over the Garonne and allows cruise ships to berth at the Chartrons piers near the city centre. You can reach it by tram line B getting off at the adjacent Bassins a Flot stop.

I have to admit that it took sometimes to me to understand the mechanism used in this Bridge to get "open" to the Massive Boat that can go through it, and once I understood how it works....WOW!!!!!!!Have a walk on it and have a boat'trip close to it and you'll see how much is great this bridge!

Not a pretty sight & hopefully you are not one of the many thousand's to get held up here in the summer

Walk along the Quai, cross Pont Jaques, then walk along the path on the right bank to Pont Pierre we you can cross back into the main City. Great picture opportunity from the bridge. Better yet, do a full circuit.

The bridge is lovely for sure. It's quite a ways from the centre (walking). We walked along the river towards the bridge and it was a great backdrop fro pics while we passed the bars, restaurants and shops. Would be better if you could climb up...that would be spectacular.

I am not sure that a detour up to see the bridge is worth it UNLESS it was opening up to allow a boat to pass through. That would be very spectacular and worthy of 5 stars. If you want to go up and see it, take Tram Line B in the direction of Claveau or Bassins a Flot. Get off at Bassins a Flot and the bridge is right in front of you. The 10 or 15 minutes until the next tram will allow you enough time to look at it.My individual reviews have to be seen in the following context. We had a long weekend in Bordeaux recently and really enjoyed it. The sum of the whole experience was greater than the sum of the individual parts. The many sights in the old part of the city are quite close together. We enjoyed walking around supplemented by the excellent and very cheap tram system. We felt that none of the sights, with perhaps one or two exceptions, were outstanding. What was outstanding was the number of very interesting and worthwhile things to see in such a compact area. Apart from the individual sights, the old part of the town was both very attractive and atmospheric and even some of the more outlying areas were quite attractive.

This morning 30' of pleasure along water, some running ans others biking, crossing from the left to the right side on the futurist bridge "Pont levant", a few minutes later, coming back by the historical bridge, "Pont de Pierre", near famous St Michel place in Bordeaux center... One city, two faces, past and future. Also nature... Really the new place to be !!!

Rather than just being a standard opening bridge, the whole road is elevated up the four towers whenever a large boat comes into Bordeaux (sadly not very often) as fun to see.

Le pont Chaban est une prouesse technologique, et le voir s'élever est un rêve de voyage , il laisse entrer les paquebots de croisière, ou les laisse regagner l'océan . Pour être plus terre à terre , disons qu'il est la porte le vante pour une économie touristique tout en fluidifiant la circulation automobile

Jai bien aimé l'inauguration, la construction est très comtemporaine. Un lieu incontournable sur Bx! Parfait pr un peu de sport

chef d oeuvre ! illuminé la nuit, on dirait un vaisseau pirate !!!!le pont se léve quand passe les paquebots, il est moderne et simple mais en meme temps trés futuriste

Ce pont possède une architecture originale, beaucoup de monde l'emprunte à pied ou à vélo car il fait à peine 400 m de long ; depuis le pont, on peut admirer les rives de la garonne de part et d'autre