At first, they used heavy timbers as deep foundations in the riverbed, but a later technique involved using watertight walls to redirect the water and then laying a stone foundation in the area. When building bridges across moving bodies of water, Roman engineers would begin by laying a foundation. The longest extant Roman bridge is the 790-metre (2,590 ft) Puente Romano at Mérida. This was to be the longest arch bridge for a thousand years both in terms of overall and individual span length. Trajan's Bridge over the Danube featured open-spandrel segmental arches made of wood (standing on 40 metres (130 ft) high concrete piers). Wider spans increase the bridge's drainage, reduce water pressure on the spandrels, and reduced the bridge's weight. Another bridge over the Bibey River in Galicia has a pier 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) wide, arches with a 4.3-metre (14 ft) span, 6-and-9-metre (20 and 30 ft) side arches, and an arch spanning 18.5 metres (61 ft). A bridge in Alcántara has piers 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) wide, 47 metres (154 ft) high, and arches with a span of 1.3 metres (4 ft 3 in). The Ponte Sant'Angelo, built during the reign of Hadrian, has five arches each with a span of 18 metres (59 ft). By the time of Augustus around the turn of the 1st millennium the maximum span of Roman bridges increased from around 24 metres (79 ft) in 142 BC to 35 metres (115 ft). They could be anywhere from 4.6 to 18.3 metres (15 to 60 ft) long. Roman bridges were much larger than the bridges of other civilizations. Roman bridge-building techniques persisted until the 18th century: for example, the prevalence of arches in bridges can be attributed to the Romans. Some Roman bridges are still used today, such as the Pons Fabricius, and even after the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, engineers copied their bridges. īy the 2nd century Roman techniques had declined, and they had been mostly lost by the 4th century. Sometimes roads and bridges were used for commercial purposes, but this was rare as boats better served the needs of the Roman economy. Bridges were constructed by the Roman government to serve the needs of the military and the empire's administration. These were the first large-scale bridges ever constructed. Engineers began to use stone instead of wood to exemplify the Pax Romana and to construct longer-lasting bridges. īetween 150 and 50 BCE, many stone Roman bridges were built, the Pons Aemilius being the first. This view is not supported unanimously: Spanish engineer Leonardo Fernández Troyano suggests that stone bridges have existed since Pre-Roman Italy. According to Canadian classicist John Peter Oleson, no known stone bridges existed in Italy before the 2nd century BCE. Also, they began to use iron clamps to hold together bridges, constructing midstream arches, and pentagonal stones to allow for wider vaults. Pons Aemilius, the oldest stone bridge in Romeīy the 2nd century BC, the Romans had further refined their bridge-building techniques, using stronger materials such as volcanic ash, lime and gypsum. Many Roman bridges had semicircular arches, but a few were segmental, i.e. Roman arched bridges were capable of withstanding more stress by dispersing forces across bridges. They developed the voussoir, stronger keystones, vaults, and superior arched bridges. The Romans improved on Etruscan architectural techniques. It was built in the 6th century BCE by Ancus Marcius over the Tiber River. The oldest bridge in ancient Rome was the Pons Sublicius. Stone bridges used the arch as their basic structure, and most used concrete, the first use of this material in bridge-building.įollowing the conquests of Tarquinius Priscus, Etruscan engineers migrated to Rome, bringing with them their knowledge of bridge-building techniques. Early Roman bridges were wooden, but by the 2nd century stone was being used. There were three major types of Roman bridge: wooden, pontoon, and stone. Early Roman bridges used techniques introduced by Etruscan immigrants, but the Romans improved those skills, developing and enhancing methods such as arches and keystones. The ancient Romans were the first civilization to build large, permanent bridges. Puente Romano, Mérida, the world's longest (still in use) surviving Roman bridge
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