In 1447, to provide against the occupation of this island by the enemy, the people of Orleans had constructed a tower, the tower or fortress of Saint-Antoine, beyond the sixth arch and occupying the whole breadth of the bridge.

On the buttress between the eleventh and twelfth arch was a cross of gilded bronze, supported by a pedestal of stone.

It was indeed what it was called, the Cross Beautiful,--La Belle-Croix.

The buttresses of the eighteenth arch were extended, and on the abutment there rose a little castle formed of two towers joined by a vaulted porch.

This little castle was called Les Tourelles.
Between the nineteenth and the twentieth arch as in the first was a drawbridge.