In the 12th century, the Saint-Nicolas bridge of Joigny had twelve arches. The two arches closest to the bridge gate were made of stone while the next three were made of wood so that they could be demolished quickly to cut off access to the town in the event of a threat. Carried away by the successive floods of the Yonne, they collapsed definitively in 1725 leading to the reconstruction of the bridge in the 18th century.