Pont Saint-Bénézet (Pont d'Avignon), France

The four surviving arches of the Pont d'Avignon stopping in the middle of the Rhône, with the Chapel of Saint Nicholas sitting on its second pier. The first bridge here went up between 1177 and 1185, and the stone bridge seen today dates from the rebuilding that began around 1234. At its peak it ran 22 arches across the river, but the Rhône's floods kept pulling arches down, and in the mid-17th century the city gave up repairing it. That is what makes it worth the visit: you can walk out along the deck to the broken end and see exactly how a medieval bridge loses its fight with a river. It is the bridge of the song "Sur le Pont d'Avignon," and part of Avignon's World Heritage Site.