Bridge of Sighs a translation from the Italian "Ponte dei sospiri" in the 19th century, comes from the suggestion that prisoners would sigh at their final view of beautiful Venice through the window before being taken down to their cells. In reality, the days of inquisitions and summary executions were over by the time the bridge was built, and the cells under the palace roof were occupied mostly by small-time criminals. In addition, little could be seen from inside the bridge due to the stone grills covering the windows. The name "Bridge of Sighs" has since been applied by association to other bridges
European Bridge League of the World Bridge Federation. Geographically the EBL members range from Iceland to Malta to Israel to Armenia, who are all members of the European Olympic Committee too. Both "bridge Europe" and "Olympic Europe" have 49 members but only 44 match. England, Scotland, and Wales compete as three nations in bridge, Denmark and Faroe Islands compete as two, but they jointly constitute Great Britain and Denmark Olympic teams. Otherwise Andorra, Azerbaijan, Macedonia, and Moldova are in Olympic Europe but do not compete in world bridge. Lebanon is in bridge Europe and Olympic Asia. The European "Small Federations" competition, established 2007,