Ponte alla Carraia

The original bridge was the second one built over the Arno after Ponte Vecchio, hence the name 'new bridge'. It was also known as the "ponte alle Carra": the work was erected at the behest of the Umiliati di Ognissanti fathers, the first Florentine wool entrepreneurs, and was used to divert wagon traffic to the homonymous city Gate of the penultimate circle of walls. Over the centuries it was rebuilt several times following the numerous floods of the Arno, but also in 1304, when it collapsed under the excessive weight of the crowd that had come to attend a show on the river. The bridge, rebuilt by Cosimo I de' Medici, lasted for about four centuries, as it was destroyed – like all others, with the only exception of Ponte Vecchio - in 1944 during the Nazi retreat. The current version dates back to 1951.