Which Paris bridge appears in a 1789 origin story for French fries?

The Paris bridge named in a 1789 origin story for French fries is the Pont Neuf.

According to this enduring account, street vendors fried potatoes near or on the Pont Neuf during the revolutionary year 1789, shortly before the outbreak of the French Revolution. The bridge crosses the Seine in central Paris and is one of the city’s best-known historic landmarks. The story connects the snack with Parisian street food and helps explain why some accounts describe fries as French in origin.

The claim should be treated as an origin story rather than settled proof. Historical evidence for the modern baton-shaped fry is complicated, and earlier French references describe fried potato pieces without always specifying the familiar stick shape. The term pommes Pont-Neuf is also used for a thick-cut French fry style, reinforcing the bridge’s association with the dish.

Other popular claims place the decisive development in Belgium or credit later figures such as Frédéric Krieger with bringing Paris-style fries there. Those traditions concern different stages of the food’s history; they do not change which bridge appears in the 1789 Parisian story.