The Ponte dei Sospiri (Bridge of Sighs), visible from the Ponte della Paglia, links the Doge's Palace with the Prigioni Nuove (New Prisons).
The Ponte dei Sospiri was created by Antonio Contin, who imagined it as a sumptuous prison carved from Istrian stone. Legend has it that it was called the Bridge of Sighs because the prisoners who crossed it to be transferred from the court of the Doge's Palace, where they had been tried and tried, to their cells, looked out the windows and sighed.
Bridge of Sighs Map