Hertford Bridge: The Bridge of Sighs
Why is it significant?
Look up at that elegant covered stone bridge floating between two collegiate buildings over New College Lane: Hertford Bridge, universally known to locals and visitors as the Bridge of Sighs.
Key Facts
| Place | Hertford Bridge: The Bridge of Sighs |
|---|---|
| Address | New College Ln, Oxford OX1 3BL |
| Geo Coordinates | 51.75410, -1.25410 |
| Part of Walk | Oxford Legends: Hogwarts Cloisters, Alice's River & Inklings Pubs |
| Generated | Generated |
Look up at that elegant covered stone bridge floating between two collegiate buildings over New College Lane: Hertford Bridge, universally known to locals and visitors as the Bridge of Sighs. Completed in nineteen fourteen by architect Sir Thomas Jackson, it links the Old and New quadrangles of Hertford College so students do not have to brave the wet Oxford rain.
Why is it named after the Bridge of Sighs in Venice? While visitors frequently compare it to the Venetian Ponte dei Sospiri, architects note that its graceful single span actually resembles the Rialto Bridge far more closely. Oxford undergraduates quickly invented their own humorous explanation for the sighs: they claimed it was the heavy sigh of students walking across the bridge to face their dreaded end-of-term examinations and tutors.
A popular Oxford myth claims that decades ago, college authorities conducted a survey of student health, discovered that Hertford students were the heaviest in the university, and sealed the bridge doors to force them to take the stairs for exercise! Of course, the doors were never locked, but the tale remains an undergraduate favorite.
Stand underneath the arch on a foggy winter evening: with the gas lamps glowing against the honey-colored Cotswold limestone, New College Lane feels like a film set frozen in the seventeenth century, untouched by modern neon.