The engineering of the bridge is attributed to Jean Résal and Amédée Alby, while the sculptural programme was distributed among Frémiet, Récipon, Marqueste, and others. It was built between 1896 and 1900 for the same Universal Exhibition that produced the Grand and Petit Palais. The bridge solved an unusual brief: the city wanted an unobstructed sightline from the Esplanade des Invalides through to the Champs-Élysées, which meant a low-rise crossing without intermediate piers in the river.
The solution is a single steel arch of one hundred and seven metres, with a rise of only six metres above the springing line. This is an exceptionally flat curve that would not have been buildable in stone, and that was at the limit of contemporary steelwork. The arch is articulated as three hinges, at each haunch and at the crown, which allows it to expand and contract thermally without inducing additional stress. The thrust of the arch is absorbed by massive masonry abutments hidden inside the four corner pylons. The pylons exist primarily as anchorages, but they were monumentalised into seventeen-metre socle towers crowned with gilded bronze Pegasus groups by Frémiet. At the river level, allegorical female figures representing the Seine, the Neva, France of Charlemagne, and France of Louis XIV are set against the abutments. Art Nouveau cast-iron lamp standards line the parapets, and four winged genii at the corners complete the sculptural programme, so that the engineering does not read as bare. The deck is forty metres wide.
In this sense, the Pont Alexandre III is a perfect Beaux-Arts negotiation between calcul and ornement. The structural radicalism is absolute, but it is concealed beneath dressed stone and gilded sculpture, so that the public reads the bridge as a celebration rather than as a calculation. Named for Tsar Alexander III, the bridge also formalised the Franco-Russian Alliance of 1892.