The Pont des Arts - called also passerelle of des Arts (pedestrian bridge of Arts) - was in 1801/1802 until 1804 by engineer Demontier built. The bridge from the adjacent Louvre, called Palais des Arts at the beginning of the 19th century due to its art collections had been named. The construction cost amounted to 787.655 francs and 65 centimes. On the opening day, 64,000 Paris bridge flocked to first cross the Seine on her. Until the February revolution of 1848, bridge toll for crossing the bridge had to be paid.

The bridge had always been reserved for pedestrians, that could go for a walk or relax on the chairs and benches of the bridge with stunning views on the eastern tip of the île de la Cité and the Louvre between trees growing out of flower pots.

1852, the former Italian star architect Louis Visconti (1791-1853), who already was entrusted by emperor Napoléon III. with the redesign of the Louvre, was commissioned to rebuild the Pont of the kind. On the occasion of the widening of the Quai de Conti, among other things, an arch was to tear down. Visconti's sudden death in 1853 was his successor as Chief Architect of the new Louvre, Hector Martin Lefuel (1810-1881), also the renovation work on the bridge continued. In a second phase of reconstruction, Lefuel, the bridge between 1871 and 1876 was widened.

in 1918, the bridge was damaged by a bomb.

1979 a bridge abutment was rammed by a barge and the bridge fell on a width of 60 meters. The renovation from March 1982 to May 1984 held under the supervision of the architect Louis Arretche.

Today it is customary of Parisians and tourists, to seal their love with a castle (especially on Valentine's day), which is attached to the iron fence of the bridge. The key is then thrown into the Seine. The city of Paris can however remove the locks due to the mass at irregular intervals.