Wrought iron stretches across the Genesee River and Brown's Race in front of you: the Pont de Rennes Bridge, originally the Platt Street Bridge, a historic pedestrian bridge. Built in 1891 by the Rochester Bridge and Iron Works to a design by engineer Leffert Lefferts Buck, this 858-foot-long, 11-panel, rivet-connected lattice (triple Warren) deck truss stands 114 feet above the river. It once carried the vehicular traffic of Platt Street, was later closed to automobiles after being deemed structurally unsafe, and sat unused for approximately two decades before being converted to a pedestrian bridge in 1982 and renamed for Rochester's sister city of Rennes, France.
As a contributing structure within the Brown's Race Historic District — listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989 — the bridge is also part of the Genesee Riverway Trail and offers commanding views of High Falls, a 96-foot waterfall on the Genesee River, and the surrounding gorge. Most recently, between 2023 and 2024 the bridge underwent an $18.7 million rehabilitation as part of the ROC the Riverway initiative, reopening on December 6, 2024. Notice the 96-foot High Falls ahead, framed by the gorge it carved through the Genesee River.