How did Roman bridges impact the world?

Answer 1

Roman bridges had an impact on the area of the Roman Empire and medieval Europe, rather than the whole world.

The Romans used the arch to build their bridges. The arch has a great load-bearing capacity and could support much larger bridges than ever before. Much longer bridges could also be built by having a succession of arches which spanned the length of a bridge so that they could stretch for miles. This had been impossible before. The Romans also used concrete as well as stones and bricks, which made the bridges stronger.

Roman bridges helped the Romans to build a vast road network which totalled 400,000 kilometres (250,000 miles) 20% of which ((80,500 kilometres, 50,313 miles) were the famous stone-paved roads. Thanks to the greatly improved bridges these roads could cross the valleys of the big mountain chains of Europe and Turkey and much wider rivers. This network facilitated travel and the transport of trade goods around the empire.

The bridges were also useful militarily. Julius Caesar carried out two punitive expeditions into Germany when he conquered Gaul by building bridges across the river Rhine (which is very wide) and then dismantling them. Trajan had a six and a half mile long bridge built across the lower Danube to invade the Dacians who lived on the other side of the river. Justinian I had the Sangarius Bridge built in north-western Turkey to facilitate the movement of troops to the eastern frontiers, which were threatened by the Persians. This is a good example of the improvements the Roman bridges brought about. Prior to this there was a wooden pontoon which was often washed away when the river flooded. This bridge was, and still is, 429 metres (469 yards) long, 10 metre (32 ft.) wide and up to 10 metre high. It has seven arches. The central ones have spans of 23 to 24,5 metres (80-75 ft.) and the two at he sides 20 metres (64 ft.). The piers in between are 6 metre wide (19 ft.).

The Romans also put the water conduits of their aqueducts on bridgework when they deeded to cross valleys or maintain a gradient (the water was moved by gravity).

When the Romans needed high bridges, they built two or three tiers of arches to achieve greater height. The Pont du Gard, a bridge for an aqueduct which supplied Nimes, in southern France is the greatest example of a multi- pier bridge. It has three tiers of recessed arches with the main piers in line one above the other. The first two tiers have very high and wide arches and a third tier has low and narrow arches. It was built to carry an aqueduct to Nimes in southern France. It reaches a height of 48.8 metres (160 feet). The lower tier is 142 metres (466 feet) long and has six aches with a height of 22 metres (72 ft.). The second tier is 242 metres (794 ft.) long and has eleven arches 20 metres (66 ft.) high. The upper tier is 275 metre (902 ft.) long. It originally had 47 arches (only 35 have survived) 7 metres (23 ft.) high. The width of the first pier is 6 metres (20th.), that of the second pier is 4 metres (13 ft.) and that of the third pier is 3 metres (23 ft.).