“Many thanks for your message. The Archivist has asked me to send you the following information:
The Bridge of Sighs when originally constructed was called the New Bridge, but Queen Victoria in her Diary recalling a visit to Cambridge in 1847,(the year her husband Prince Albert was installed as Chancellor of the University) explicitly compares it with the Bridge of Sighs in Venice, hence, we believe, the name. The earliest reference outside the royal diary which we have found is in William Everett, On the Cam (1865): 'the new bridge is poetically called by its owners the Bridge of Sighs'.
Best wishes
Catherine Twilley
------------------------------
Catherine Twilley
Development Officer
St John's College
Cambridge
CB2 1TP
Tel: 01223 338700
Fax: 01223 338727
Email: Development-Officer@joh.cam.ac.uk www.joh.cam.ac.uk”
The Bridge of Sighs when originally constructed was called the New Bridge, but Queen Victoria in her Diary recalling a visit to Cambridge in 1847,(the year her husband Prince Albert was installed as Chancellor of the University) explicitly compares it with the Bridge of Sighs in Venice, hence, we believe, the name. The earliest reference outside the royal diary which we have found is in William Everett, On the Cam (1865): 'the new bridge is poetically called by its owners the Bridge of Sighs'.
Best wishes
Catherine Twilley
------------------------------
Catherine Twilley
Development Officer
St John's College
Cambridge
CB2 1TP
Tel: 01223 338700
Fax: 01223 338727
Email: Development-Officer@joh.cam.ac.uk www.joh.cam.ac.uk”