This seven-arched bridge once crossed the Oreto River (now dried up or relegated to flow underground) on the south-east side of Palermo’s historic center. Known as the Ponte dell’Ammiraglio, or Admiral’s Bridge, it was built in 1113 by Roger II’s emir of emirs, George of Antioch. Today, this wonder of Arab-Norman architecture sits in a piazza encircled by the Corso dei Mille, or the Path of the Thousands, named so because it is the place where in May 1860 Garibaldi’s Red Shirts (There were thousands of them.) encountered Bourbon troops during the Risorgimento’s battle of Palermo. The Admiral’s Bridge was named part of the “Arab-Norman Palermo and the Cathedral Churches of Cefalù and Monreale” UNESCO World Heritage site in 2015.
