Inga Saffron, the architecture critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer, wrote a piece recently about an interesting structure that I don't think I knew about. It's a Venetian Bridge of Sighs. I've been to Venice and walked past the original several times a day for a week. This isn't a reproduction but is a very impressive nod to the original.
It was designed in 1912 to allow employees to move from Lit Brothers department store (itself an architectural wonder) to the Cast Iron building behind it. You can read her article here. You can read about and see photos of Lit Brothers here.
Lit Brothers is still mostly intact, but they're about to build a skyscraper above and behind it, with the stipulation that the bridge remains.
I wish businesses appreciated the buildings they're in and stopped putting new lower facades or entrances on them. It destroys the architectural integrity of the building. They look like someone in a tuxedo or gown wearing combat boots.
Here are two photos of Philadelphia's Bridge of Sighs I took on Saturday:
Very cool. Why is it called a bridge of sighs?
ReplyDeleteThe Bridge of Sighs in Venice connected the interrogation rooms in the Doge's Palace to the New Prison. Wikipedia says that Lord Byron gave it the name, imagining that condemned prisoners sighed at their last view of beautiful Venice when being taken over the bridge to their cells.
DeleteThere's also a 'Bridge of Sighs' in Oxford it's real name being Hertford Bridge. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridge_of_Sighs_%28Oxford%29
ReplyDeleteWhat a pretty bridge! We must have seen it when we were in Oxford, but I don't remember it. I keep meaning to dig out our travel photos. It's interesting that the Oxford bridge was built at about the same time the one in Philly was built. A resurgence of Venetian style? It's just too bad today's architects don't reach into the past for inspiration. Most of today's architecture looks cold, uninteresting except in a weird way, and out of human scale, at least it does to me.
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