The Pont de Rennes pedestrian bridge and park were created in 1982 from what was the Platt Street bridge (1891), an 858-foot-long, truss bridge. The bridge is named for a Rochester Sister City in France. This is the best viewing site of the High Falls.
Looking out over the Gorge, you can see rock formations of shale, limestone and sandstone, with bands of iron ore. These sedimentary rocks, formed by the accumulation of deposits that came from what is now the Hudson Valley, are over 400 million years old. Soils from the then Alpine-like mountains were washed into a shallow sea. The sediment compressed and cemented to form layers of rock. The red sandstone, locally called "Medina sandstone," provided an excellent building material and is often found on Rochester sidewalks, curbs and older buildings.