the project of Henry IV. After the assassination of the king in 1610, it became the site of another innovation: the first equestrian statue in Paris. Commissioned in 1614 by Marie de' Medici - the widow and regent of the king - it was modelled after the equestrian statues of her native Italy. Giambologna completed the commission in 1618. The statue was destroyed in 1792 during the French Revolution, but was replaced in 1817 by the royal sculptor François Lemot, using casts of the original. At the time that the statue was installed on the bridge, it stood at the very tip of island. In 1884 the end of the island was extended over a sandbar with the construction of new quays, and planted with trees. This became the new Square of Vert-Galant. Its name comes from the king's nickname as an admirer of women. The triangular park has some of the finest views of the buildings along both sides of the Seine. Bridges From early times wooden bridges linked the island to the riverbanks on either side. The Grand Pont (or Pont au Change) spanned the wider reach to the Right Bank, while the Petit Pont crossed the narrower channel to the Left Bank. The first stone bridge was built in 1378 at the site of the present Pont Saint-Michel; but ice floes carried it away, along with all the houses on it, 1408. The Grand Pont or Pont Notre-Dame - also swept away at intervals by floodwaters - and the Petit Pont were rebuilt by Fra Giovanni Giocondo at the beginning of the 16th century. The six arches of the Pont Notre-Dame supported gabled houses, some of half-timbered construction, until all were demolished in 1786. Currently eight bridges connect the island with the rest of Paris. The Pont Neuf, begun by Henry IV and completed in 1607, is the oldest still in its original form, and the only one that goes from the right bank to the left bank The Pont au Change, from the Place du Châtelet on the right bank to the Quai de l'Horloge and the Palais de Justice The Pont Notre-Dame, across the center of the island The Pont d'Arcole, from the Hotel de Ville to the Hotel Dieu and Notre Dame de Paris The Pont Saint-Louis, from Notre-dame de Paris to the Ile Saint-Louis The Pont de l'Archeveche, from the southeast end of