It stands by the western (downstream) point of the Île de la Cité, the island in the middle of the river that was, between 250 and 225 BCE, the birthplace of Paris, then known as Lutetia and, during the medieval period, the heart of the city.

Today the tip of the island is the location of the Square du Vert-Galant, a small public park named in honour of Henry IV, nicknamed the "Green Gallant".

[3] As early as 1550, Henry II considered building a new bridge at the Ile de la Cite because the existing Pont Notre-Dame was congested and needed repair.

[2] In February 1578,[4] the decision to build the bridge was made by Henry III who laid its first stone in on 31 May 1578,[5] the same year when the foundations of four piers and one abutment were completed.

[2] Pierre des Isles, one of the builders, convinced the supervisory commission that the bridge, which was originally planned straight, would be more resistant to the river currents if its two sections were built at a slight angle.

This was not a problem on the north side, where nothing had been built, but on the south, where the four piles and the abutment on the Left Bank were already laid, the addition of the fifth arch necessitated reducing the length of the platform on the island, the terre-plein, from 28.5 toises to about 19.

[2] After a long delay beginning in 1588, due to political unrest and to the Wars of Religion, construction was resumed in 1599 under the reign of Henry IV.

They are copies of the originals attributed to the French Renaissance sculptor Germain Pilon (1525–1590), who also sculpted the tomb of King Henry II of France and Queen Catherine de'Medici in the Basilica of St Denis, five kilometers north of Paris.

During their reconstruction, the Renaissance masks were replaced with copies made by noted 19th-century sculptors, including Hippolyte Maindron, Hubert Lavigne, Antoine-Louis Barye and Fontenelle.

Years after it was torn down (in 1813), Ernest Cognacq, a 19th-century merchant, set up a stand on the site and gradually grew his business to what became, in 1869, the department store La Samaritaine.

Upon completion, Pont Neuf attracted throngs of visitors, many of whom used the bridge as a public square, conducting business, socializing, and taking in the view.

In 1701, Cotolendi quoted a letter supposedly written by a Sicilian tourist: One finds on the Pont-Neuf an infinity of people who give tickets, some put fallen teeth back in, and others make crystal eyes; there are those who cure incurable illnesses; those who claim to have discovered the virtues of some powdered stones to white and to beautify the face.

the Pont-Neuf was the scene of the recitals of Tabarin, a famous satirist of the day, and it was long afterwards the favourite rendezvous of news-vendors, jugglers, showmen, loungers, and thieves.

Poodle clippers plied their trade; jugglers amused the quid nuncs with feats of dexterity; traveling dentists pulled teeth and sold balsams; clowns tumbled; and last, but not least, pickpockets lifted purses and silk handkerchiefs with impunity.

He was aided by a buffoon named Tabarin, who made facetious replies to questions asked by his master, accompanied with laughable grimaces and grotesque gestures.

[17] Under Louis XV, thieves and entertainers were joined by recruiters, or "sellers of human flesh", who did their best to lure newcomers to Paris and others "with as much violence as the sale of Negros in the Congo".

One yearly event, held on the nearby Place Dauphine, prefigured the Salon des Refusés which would give rise to the Impressionists.

He wanted afterwards to know the young painter, encouraged him, gave him advice, of which the latter perhaps had no need, got him work, which was more useful, and eight years later, the unknown of the place Dauphine was his colleague at the Academy of Painting.... he was called Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin.

[19]The slow decline of the bridge's central role began in 1754: "Starting in 1754, the first year of the vogue, the madness of the boulevards, it was no longer the thing to talk about the Cours [the Champs-Elysées], and still less of this poor Pont-Neuf.

"[21] In 1838, Louis Daguerre produced his famous daguerreotype portrait of the View of the Boulevard du Temple, widely considered the first photograph where a human can be seen.