Antonio da Ponte was an Venetian architect and engineer, most famous for his rebuilding the Rialto Bridge

Rialto Bridge

The Rialto Bridge is one of the four bridges spanning the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy. It is the oldest bridge across the canal, and was the dividing line for the districts of San Marco and San Polo.- History :...

 in that city.

Da Ponte was head architect of the rebuilding of the Ducal Palace that was badly damaged by fire in 1574. After the original wooden structure of the Rialto Bridge had collapsed repeatedly, it was decided that a stone bridge was necessary. Between 1588 and 1591 da Ponte rebuilt the Rialto Bridge to a design to which he had contributed.

The design was selected in a contest held by the local authorities under Doge of Venice

Doge of Venice

The Doge of Venice , often mistranslated Duke was the chief magistrate and leader of the Most Serene Republic of Venice for over a thousand years. Doges of Venice were elected for life by the city-state's aristocracy. Commonly the person selected as Doge was the shrewdest elder in the city...

 Pasquale Cicogna. Though Da Ponte is relatively unknown otherwise, the design for the Venice landmark defeated submissions by noted architects of the time, including Michelangelo

Michelangelo

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art...

.
Plans were offered by famous architects such as Jacopo Sansovino

Jacopo Sansovino

Jacopo d'Antonio Sansovino was an Italian sculptor and architect, known best for his works around the Piazza San Marco in Venice. Andrea Palladio, in the Preface to his Quattro Libri was of the opinion that Sansovino's Biblioteca Marciana was the best building erected since Antiquity...

, Andrea Palladio

Andrea Palladio

Andrea Palladio was an architect active in the Republic of Venice. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily by Vitruvius, is widely considered the most influential individual in the history of Western architecture...

 and Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola

Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola

Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola was one of the great Italian architects of 16th century Mannerism. His two great masterpieces are the Villa Farnese at Caprarola and the Jesuits' Church of the Gesù in Rome...

, but all involved a Classical approach with several arches, which was judged inappropriate to the situation.

The engineering of the bridge throws considerable weight on its foundations. It was considered so audacious that architect Vincenzo Scamozzi

Vincenzo Scamozzi

thumb|250px|Portrait of Vincenzo Scamozzi by [[Paolo Veronese]]Vincenzo Scamozzi was a Venetian architect and a writer on architecture, active mainly in Vicenza and Republic of Venice area in the second half of the 16th century...

 predicted future ruin. However the bridge has defied its critics to become one of the architectural icons of Venice.

In the construction of this work Antonio was helped by his nephew Antonio Contino, who would also later design the famous Bridge of Sighs

Bridge of Sighs

The Bridge of Sighs is a bridge in Venice, northern Italy . The enclosed bridge is made of white limestone and has windows with stone bars. It passes over the Rio di Palazzo and connects the old prisons to the interrogation rooms in the Doge's Palace...

(Ponte dei Sospiri). In 1841, the Parisian architect Antoine Rondelet wrote about the suspicious similarities between Antonio da Ponte's project and the one by Vincenzo Scamozzi.