Military History | Pont Mémorial, Fismes — The Useful Kind of Memorial
· 1940-6
Unreviewed contributionBy kevin · · updated · Report an issue
Find memories left by people near you.
Distribute Bounty
This will distribute the bounty equally among all qualifying memories. This action cannot be undone.
Cancel Bounty
Are you sure you want to cancel this bounty? The remaining amount will be refunded to your account.
Success!
Operation completed successfully.
Error
Something went wrong.
Military History | Pont Mémorial, Fismes — The Useful Kind of Memorial
kevin
In June 1940, as the German advance came down on the Vesle, the bridge between Fismes and Fismette was blown. It was the third time the crossing had gone; the Reims tourist office's account of it gives September 1914 and May 1918 for the first two. What made the third loss different is that by then the bridge was a monument.
The American Battle Monuments Commission had decided in March 1926 to prohibit privately raised American memorials in France, permitting only those it judged useful to the communities they stood in, "such as civic buildings, bridges, fountains and the like." The State of Pennsylvania built a bridge. Its own 28th Division, drawn from the state's National Guard, had been in the fighting here in August 1918, and this crossing carried the road north into Fismette. Two architects are named for the work, Thomas H. Atherton and Paul Philippe Cret. The bridge still carries its dedication in both languages, each text ending 1927: on one face a tribute to the service of the 28th Division, American Expeditionary Forces; on the other, in French, a memorial to those who gave their lives for the liberation of Fismes.
It stood a little over a decade. Pennsylvania took part in rebuilding it after the Second World War, and the accounts do not fit together. A Meadville newspaper dates the rebuilding from 1946 and its completion to 1952; a French heritage listing gives 1955 to 1958; the tourist office records a decision in 1954 to rebuild without the monumental parts, and restoration work beginning in 1994 to put them back.
They are back. Two columns at the southern end each carry a standing stone figure, bronze lantern standards run along the parapet, and 1918 is cut into one pedestal. The D967 crosses between them all day.
📸 Cover: G.Garitan, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons — the bridge from the south in 2013, both columns and their figures in place. Second image: the same photographer, the parapet lanterns and the pedestal cut 1918. The deck is the post-1945 replacement; the monumental parts were restored from 1994.
changes?
delete this memory?
We detected that you have a Blox in your crypto wallet! We will import the Blox into your account.
Click on done below to complete the import.
Welcome Back!
Sign in to preserve cherished moments
Don't have an account?
Welcome!!
Sign up and start preserving cherished moments
?
?
Choose your payment method
Buy with Metablox Credit
Do you want to mint Blox with Metablox Credit?
Which Crypto would you like to use?
Purchase Confirmed!
Your Blox is being minted on-chain and will appear in your profile shortly.
Log in or sign up to claim your Blox.
How many credits do you want to buy?
$100 USD = 1 Metablox Credit = 1 Blox.
Use Metablox Credit to mint any Blox you want on the map.
expand_more