Brewer's: Bridge of Sighs

which connects the palace of the Doge with the state prisons of Venice. Over this bridge the state prisoners were conveyed from the judgment-hall to the place of execution.

I stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs, A palace and a prison on each hand.

Byron: Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, iv. 1:

Waterloo Bridge, in London, used, some years ago, when suicides were frequent there, to be called The Bridge of Sighs.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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