Île aux Cygnes is a small artificial island on the river Seine in Paris, France, in the 15th arrondissement. It was created in 1827 to protect the bridge named the pont de Grenelle. It should not be confused with an earlier Île des Cygnes that was attached to the Champ de Mars in the late 18th century.
The uninhabited island is 850 metres (2,789 ft) long and 11 metres (36 ft) at its widest point, making it the third-largest island in Paris. A tree-lined walkway, named L'Allée des Cygnes (Path of Swans), runs the length of the island. Since 2012, there has been a public workout space with bicycles and a climbing wall underneath the Pont de Grenelle, close to a Statue of Liberty replica. France gave the U.S. the Statue of Liberty in 1886; Americans gave Paris a smaller version of the same statue in 1889. The statue itself was given to the city of Paris in 1889 by the American community in Paris to commemorate the centennial of the French Revolution.
In characteristic American fashion, the statue was officially inaugurated on the Fourth of July (a date not at all associated with the French Revolution) rather than Bastille Day (a mere ten days later, and often described to the uninitiated as the “French Fourth of July”). To be fair, the inauguration was presided over by French President Marie François Sadi Carnot, who probably had other things to do on Bastille Day (also, the statue’s tablet bears the date July 14, 1789, as well as July 4, 1776).
The gift was given to highlight the historically close bond between France and the United States, and reaffirm the dedication of the two nations to the republican ideal on which they were founded.
This Pont de Grenelle Statue of Liberty was installed some three years after the New York Statue of Liberty. The island is crossed by three bridges: the Pont de Grenelle, the Pont Rouelle and the Pont de Bir-Hakeim. It is served by the Passy and Bir-Hakeim Métro stations.
