Designs unveiled for a bridge

It might not take you to the same heights as the nearby Eiffel Tower but plans for a new bridge across the Seine could leave visitors literally jumping for joy.

Novelty designs for an inflatable crossing featuring trampolines have been unveiled as part of the 'Archtriumph' competition in the French capital of Paris.

Located near the Pont de Bir-Hakeim bridge, the structure would be constructed of floating PVC buoys, a total of 30 metres in diameter and stretched with trampoline mesh.
 

'Each module under tension - filled with 3700 cubic meters of air - develops in space with an arch-like form,' says architects AZC, who add that the design is 'dedicated to the joyful release from gravity as one bounces above the river.'

It is, they add, based on the concept of happiness, something 'fun and frivolous' to combat 'stressful Paris'.

'It appears to us that Paris has the bridges and passages necessary for the flow of vehicular and pedestrian traffic across its waterways,' the firm writes on its website.
 

'Our intention is to invite its visitors and inhabitants to engage on a newer and more playful path across this same water.'

Health and safety concerns about the bridge have been raised which puts a question mark over whether it could serve as a practical crossing.

There are 37 bridges in the French capital.
 

The last - the Passerelle Simone de Beauvoir - was unveiled in 2006 while the city's oldest is the Pont Neuf, built in 1607, under Henry IV.