It was the bridge joining the Doge's Palace to the New Prisons, built during an enlargement of the palace and divided from the main body by a narrow canal.

The name that nowadays seems a sentimental reference, making this bridge act as background to the gondola tours for sweethearts, derives from the Romantic literature where it was described the passage of the sentenced people, who saw the last scenery of Venice before getting into jail from the small windows in the middle of the bridge.

From the escutcheon exposed on the bridge we argue it was built between the last decade of XVI and the first in XVII century, using white Istrian Stones, elegant and clean. Nowadays this bridge is one of the major tourist attractions in Venice, for people touring by gondola.