In English, this is the bridge that connects the square rené Viviani from Notre-Dame-de-Paris, the bridge is usually called Double Payment or Double Denier. In any case, the essence is: for passage on the ferry was charged twice more than usual. Why?

In 1634, when this place was built the first bridge, almost everything looked not like now. The present day promenade Maurice brown on the left Bank of the Ile de La Cité occupied Paris hospital Hotel-Dieu ("God's house"). Free hospital for the poor, lived only on donations – although the kings, and the brotherhood of craftsmen were sent here then meat, then bread, firewood, in the hôtel-Dieu is always just not enough. There was a shortage of beds, patients were lying on them at least two. Then I started running out of space and had to build new buildings on the other Bank of the Seine, where the quay Montebello. So the river does not divide the hospital, and built the bridge.

Thought he'd rather not as the crossing, and as part of a hospital – it stood chamber. At the bottom of nuns Augustine from the Hotel-Dieu, "little laundress", from morning till evening washed in the hay hospital linen. One third of the width of the bridge is left for pedestrians and vehicles, and local residents began to use it. It was then that the hospital and introduced a double fee for the transfer is to earn. Parisians were outraged (they never liked this neighborhood hospital sewage poured directly into the Seine), it came to fights and even murders collectors card.

In 1709, the bridge collapsed because of bad weather. After 8 years, it was rebuilt along with the buildings. The hospital also had difficult: she was on fire in 1737 and 1772, and from the second, very strong, fire has failed to recover to the end. During the global reconstruction of Paris Ile de La Cité included in the plans of Baron Haussmann as a separate item. All the old buildings of the Hotel-Dieu was demolished and in 1877 built a new hospital complex with an area of three hectares – almost the same, only now it is closer to the right Bank of the Sieve. In this complex and is now city hospital Hotel-Dieu, specializing in the treatment of diabetes.

The bridge was rebuilt several times; his final appearance, he became in 1882, becoming the single arch of cast-iron and. Now this is a short (45 meters long) pedestrian bridge unique to the Parisian bridges warm color of copper. He is one of the most beautiful spots of Paris in front of Notre Dame. The passage is, of course, free, but the historical name remains.