Pont Sidi M'Cid — bridge
Yelles · CC BY-SA 4.0

Pont Sidi M'Cid

  • 1 min read
  • 36.372° N 6.614° E

Interesting facts

  • In Arabic the bridge is popularly called Qantarat al-Hibal, the Bridge of Ropes, after the cables that hold it up.
  • It was built to link the medina with the city hospital, sparing residents a long detour by way of the El Kantara bridge.
  • The bridge was inaugurated on the same day as the great stone Sidi Rached viaduct, both crowning the same building campaign.
  • Its steel deck, 5.7 metres wide and rated for 17 tonnes, is held by twelve cables, four of them main cables.
  • Far below the deck, a natural rock arch spans the gorge and hides part of the river from view.
  • Constantine had about 50,000 inhabitants when Émile Morinaud became mayor in 1901; he held office until 1934 and drove the city's modernisation.
  • A 1911 article in the French journal Le Génie civil presented the new crossing as a semi-rigid suspension bridge.

Why it is worth it

Constantine stands on a plateau of rock cut off on three sides by the deep gorge of the Rhumel river, and the Sidi M'Cid Bridge leaps that chasm in a single suspended span 175 metres above the riverbed. When it opened on 19 April 1912 it was the highest bridge in the world, a title it kept until the Royal Gorge Bridge in Colorado overtook it in 1929.

The bridge was built by the French engineer Ferdinand Arnodin, a specialist in suspension and transporter bridges, during a period of modernisation of the city under its mayor Émile Morinaud. Its deck, about 164 metres long, hangs from steel cables slung between pylons anchored on the cliffs, linking the old town to the Sidi M'Cid hill on the far side of the gorge. On that hill stands a monument to the dead of the First World War, modelled on the Roman Arch of Trajan at Timgad. The bridge still carries cars and pedestrians, who look straight down the sheer rock walls to the river far below.

Constantine is one of the oldest cities of North Africa. As Cirta it was the capital of the Numidian kingdom, and it was rebuilt in the fourth century by the Roman emperor Constantine, whose name it has carried ever since. Its setting, with a ring of bridges thrown across the gorge to the plateau of the old town, has earned it the name City of Bridges. Sidi M'Cid is the most dramatic of them, alongside older crossings such as the Bab El Kantara bridge and the lofty arches of the Sidi Rached viaduct.

Getting there

The bridge is in Constantine, about 0.8 km from the city centre. Constantine Mohamed Boudiaf International Airport (CZL) is about 11 km away.

On these lists

The Most Beautiful Places in Algeria 7The Most Beautiful Bridges 63The Greatest Engineering Wonders 271

From the encyclopaedia

Sidi M'Cid Bridge is a 164-metre-long (538 ft) suspension bridge across the Rhumel River in Constantine, Algeria. It was opened to traffic in April 1912 and until 1929 was the highest bridge in the world at 175 m (574 ft). The bridge was designed by French engineer Ferdinand Arnodin and links the Casbah to Sidi M'Cid hill. The bridge underwent restoration in 2000 when 12 of its cables were replaced by the Algerian company SAPTA.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

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