If Paris’ Ponte Alexandre III offers striking beauty against a clear daytime sky, its opulence and view of the Eiffel Tower are perhaps even more dramatic by night.

World fairs have left us some remarkable structures, and this Beaux-Arts bridge named for a Russian Tsar is no exception. When the city’s Univeral Exposition opened 114 years ago, the bridge and all its ornamentation served to celebrate the Franco-Russian Alliance. In 1896, a year prior to commencement of construction, Tsar Nicolas II and Empress Alexandra were at the work site on the Seine to lay the first stone of the bridge that would honour the Empress’ father-in-law,  Tsar Alexander III.