The Germans blew up all the bridges crossing the Arno as they retreated from Italy during World War II except this one, the Ponte Vecchio. Somehow the city managed to convince them to spare this bridge, so the Germans blew up the nearby buildings to fill the bridge with rubble instead. There's been a bridge here since Roman times, but the current version dates to the fourteenth century. Like bridges all over Europe, people inexplicably decided to build their homes on the bridge, which is something I'll never understand. First the butchers moved in, attracted in part by the ability to throw the inedible bits into the river below. However, when the Medici built a secret passageway on top of the bridge connecting their various palaces, the butchers' fates were sealed, since a Medici wasn't about to walk over the slaughterhouse stench. So out went the butchers, and in came the goldsmiths, where they remain to this day.