A half a mile west is Paris’s oldest bridge, paradoxically named the Pont-Neuf, the “new bridge” at the tip of the Île de la Cité, and more or less the center point of the Seine’s course through the city. A 17th-century triumph of design and technology, it was the first bridge in Paris to be built entirely of stone and featured pedestrian walkways. It was built without the houses that lined earlier bridges and cluttered the views. In constructing it through and on both sides of the island, Henri IV created an intimate, permanent bond between Parisians and the lifeblood of their city, the Seine.

　　往西半英里是巴黎最古老的桥，矛盾的是，它的名字却叫做“新桥”(Pont-Neuf)，它位于西岱岛一端，差不多在塞纳河流经这座城市的中点。这座桥建于17世纪，堪称设计与技术上的巨大成功，它是巴黎第一座完全由石头建造的桥，两侧设有人行道，并且没有早期桥梁上那些令周遭景色杂乱不堪的房屋。这座桥由亨利四世下令修建，将西岱岛和左右两岸连接起来，为巴黎人和城市的命脉塞纳河建立了亲密的永久性纽带。

　　This bond still exists. Behind a statue of Henri IV on the bridge are staircases that descend two flights. They open out onto a spit of land at the westernmost tip of the Île de la Cité, the Square du Vert-Galant. Unlike most Paris parks, it is open to the public all night long. When the river is high, the branches of the weeping willow planted in cobblestones at the tip of the square caress the surface of the Seine. You can come close enough to reach out and touch the water.

　　这个纽带至今仍在。桥上亨利四世雕像的后面有两段下行的楼梯。它们通向西岱岛最西端的一块区域，即绿色戈兰广场。与大多数巴黎公园不同的是，它彻夜对公众开放。河水上涨时，广场一侧的鹅卵石堤岸边，垂柳树枝轻抚着塞纳河水面。你可以走上前去，伸手触摸河流。

　　A quarter mile to the west, at the Louvre, is the Pont des Arts, a wood-slatted, iron pedestrian bridge that links the museum to the Institut de France, home of the Académie Française, on the other side of the river. A magnet for picnickers, it was once the place couples proclaimed their love by attaching metal padlocks. But the spindly, fragile footbridge was too weak to bear the weight of all this love. The city of Paris lined the bridge barriers with lock-resistant Plexiglas, and couples moved east to the Pont Neuf, until its barriers were replaced with corrugated plastic. But the love locks still sprout on odd spaces — between barriers on bridges, on lampposts and on heavy iron mooring rings all along the river.

　　卢浮宫以西四分之一英里处是艺术桥(Pont des Arts)，这是一座铁构人行桥，桥面由木板铺成，将卢浮宫与河对岸的法兰西学会(Institut de France)连接起来。法兰西学会是法兰西学术院(Académie Française)的所在地。艺术桥曾是情侣们用金属挂锁来示爱的地方，也吸引着许多野餐者。但是这座人行桥细长而又脆弱，承受不了那么多爱的重量。巴黎市在桥栏之间安装了无法挂锁的有机玻璃，情侣们只得向东迁移到新桥，直到那座桥的桥栏也装上了波纹塑料。但是，爱之锁仍然在一些奇怪的地方出现——桥上的栅栏之间，灯柱上，河边的重铁系舶环上。

　　Heading downstream, history buffs might like to walk over the Pont de la Concorde which joins the Place de la Concorde with the National Assembly. The bridge was built during the French Revolution using stones of the demolished Bastille, “so that the people could forever trample on the old fortress,” according to Rodolphe Perronet, the bridge’s engineer.

　　顺流而下，历史爱好者可能会走过协和桥(Pont de la Concorde)，它连接协和广场和国民议会。这座桥是在法国大革命期间用拆毁的巴士底狱的石头建造的，“这样人们就可以永远践踏这座古老的堡垒，”这座桥的工程师罗道夫·贝荷内(Rodolphe Perronet)说。

　　The most elegant bridge in Paris 巴黎最优雅的桥

　　波伏娃桥是巴黎最新的一座桥，用于走行人。

　　Then comes the most elegant of Paris bridges: the Pont Alexandre III, a belle epoque confection linking the Invalides to the Champs-Élysées. Built for the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1900, it was named in honor of the father of the visiting Russian czar, Nicholas II. Sculptures of full-figured, bare-breasted nymphs look out at the river from their perches at the bridge’s center. Gilded candelabra, trumpet-blowing angels, lion-taming cherubs, dolphins, starfish, sea monsters and birds proclaim joy. Faust, a nightclub, sits underneath the bridge on the Left Bank.

　　接下来是巴黎最优雅的桥：亚历山大三世桥(Pont Alexandre III)，它连接着荣军院和香榭丽舍大道，是“美好时代”(belle epoque)遗留下来的精品。它是为1900年的巴黎博览会建造的，以来访的俄国沙皇尼古拉二世(Nicholas II)的父亲命名。真人大小的裸胸女神雕像栖居在桥梁中心俯瞰河流。镀金烛台、吹号天使、驯服狮子的小天使、海豚、海星、海怪和鸟类的雕像无不是欢乐的象征。左岸一侧的桥下有一家名叫“浮士德”的夜总会。

　　The Pont Alexandre III is so emblematic of Paris that when mayor Anne Hidalgo led a campaign to promote her city as the site for the 2024 Summer Olympics, she built a 12-meter diving board on the bridge and a floating running track alongside it to stage a show of Olympic sporting events. The Eiffel Tower was strategically visible in the background for the perfect photo frame.

　　亚历山大三世桥堪称巴黎的象征，为巴黎申办2024年夏季奥运会主办城市时，市长安娜·伊达尔戈(Anne Hidalgo)在这座桥上建了一座12米跳台，旁边是一个浮动跑道，展示奥运体育赛事。站在桥上，埃菲尔铁塔在背景中非常醒目，可以拍出完美的照片。

　　The city of Paris also spends millions of dollars every year to light up its river banks, and at night, the bridges look like bright necklaces strung across the river. They show off the two schools of lighting: the Paris school, which bathes its subjects in warm, even light, and the Lyon school, which uses small spotlights to highlight details for dramatic effect. The decorations of Pont Alexandre III are lit with the pointillism of the Lyon school. So are the arches and hanging lamps of the Pont de Bercy, the high-relief sculptures on the Pont d’Austerlitz, and the medallions on the N monograms, in honor of Napoléon III, on the Pont au Change.

　　巴黎每年花费数百万美元为河岸照明，夜晚，这些桥看起来就像串在河上的明亮项链。它们展示了两种照明风格：巴黎派和里昂派，前者让对象沐浴在温暖、均匀的光线之中;后者则使用小聚光灯突出细节，达到戏剧性的效果。亚历山大三世桥上的装饰采用里昂派的点彩风格照明。贝西桥(Pont de Bercy)上的拱门和悬灯、奥斯特里茨桥(Pont d’Austerlitz)上的高浮雕雕塑、兑换桥(Pont au Change)上纪念拿破仑三世(Napoleon III)的N字母圆雕饰也都是如此。

　　Gary Zuercher, a retired businessman and a lifelong photographer, was so passionate about the way the bridges look at night that he spent more than five years photographing them in black and white for a 190-page coffee-table book, “The Glow of Paris.” Because Paris isn’t fully dark in the summer months until about 11 p.m., he did most of his work during the winter. “I wanted to present the majesty of the Paris bridges in their most alluring setting,” he said. “Nighttime.”

　　退休商人、毕生从事摄影的加里·祖尔希(Gary Zuercher)热爱这些桥梁在夜晚的样子，他花了五年多的时间拍摄这些桥的黑白照片，收集为190页的画册《巴黎的光辉》(The Glow of Paris)。因为在夏天的几个月里，巴黎要到晚上11点左右才会完全黑下来，他的大部分作品都是在冬天拍摄的。“我想在最迷人的背景下展现巴黎大桥的雄伟壮观，”他说。“那就是夜晚。”

　　By day, tourist boat rides on the Seine are interesting, of course, but at night, they become voyages of discovery. I take visitors on the Vedettes de Paris, a small bateau-mouche, because if we arrive early enough, we can nab a spot in the front of an upper deck. When the boat passes under the bridges, we can see how the lighting from underneath reveals the curves and angles of their underbellies.

　　白天在塞纳河上乘坐游船当然很有趣，但到了晚上，乘船游河就成了探索之旅。我带领游客们搭乘巴黎观光船(Vedettes de Paris)，这是一艘小型观光船，如果到得足够早，就能在上层甲板的前面占个位子。当船从桥下经过时，可以看到桥下的灯光会将桥梁下方的曲线和角度展现出来。

　　Tour guides on the bateaux-mouches will tell you that the Pont Marie is the lovers’ bridge. The story goes that if you make a wish as the boat slips under the bridge and keep the wish secret, it will be granted. One summer night, I took two female college students for a boat ride. As we approached the bridge, a recording announced: “If you’re with the person you love, kiss him or her under the bridge, make a wish, and your wish will come true.” One of the students closed her eyes and made a wish, even though her boyfriend was an ocean away.

　　观光船上的导游会告诉你，玛丽桥(Pont Marie)是一座恋人之桥。传说如果你在船从桥下行驶而过的时候许个愿，并且不告诉别人，这个愿望就会实现。一个夏天的晚上，我带着两个女大学生乘坐观光船游览。当我们接近大桥时，船上的录音宣布：“如果你和爱人在一起，在桥下亲吻他或她，再许个愿，你的愿望就会实现。”其中一个学生闭上眼睛许了个愿，尽管她的男友远隔重洋。