The New International Encyclopædia/Bridge of Sighs, The

BRIDGE OF SIGHS, The. (1) A lofty bridge in Venice, built by Antonio Contino about 1595-1605. It spans the Rio della Paglia, connecting the Doge's Palace with the Carceri Prigioni. Its name was derived from the fact of its leading to the prisons. It is inclosed at the sides, arched overhead, and contains two separate passages. Byron mentions it in the opening lines of Childe Harold, Canto IV. (2) A poem by Thomas Hood (1844), on the recovery of the body of a London outcast, who had drowned herself in the Thames. (3) The name is also used of a bridge connecting the Tombs prison in New York with the court-rooms.