The Romans also introduced segmental arch bridges into bridge construction. The outside was usually covered with brick or ashlar, as in the Alcántara bridge. Roman engineers were the first and until the industrial revolution the only ones to construct bridges with concrete, which they called Opus caementicium. in the Pons Fabricius in Rome (62 BC), one of the world's oldest major bridges still standing. Their bridges featured from an early time onwards flood openings in the piers, e.g. The Romans built both single spans and lengthy multiple arch aqueducts, such as the Pont du Gard and Segovia Aqueduct. Generally, Roman bridges featured wedge-shaped primary arch stones ( voussoirs) of the same in size and shape. The advantages of the segmental arch bridge were that it allowed great amounts of flood water to pass under it, which would prevent the bridge from being swept away during floods and the bridge itself could be more lightweight. Roman arch bridges were usually semicircular, although a number were segmental arch bridges (such as Alconétar Bridge), a bridge which has a curved arch that is less than a semicircle. ![]() A more complete survey by the Italian scholar Vittorio Galliazzo found 931 Roman bridges, mostly of stone, in as many as 26 countries (including former Yugoslavia). A list of Roman bridges compiled by the engineer Colin O'Connor features 330 Roman stone bridges for traffic, 34 Roman timber bridges and 54 Roman aqueduct bridges, a substantial part still standing and even used to carry vehicles. Īlthough true arches were already known by the Etruscans and ancient Greeks, the Romans were – as with the vault and the dome – the first to fully realize the potential of arches for bridge construction. The 4th century BC Rhodes Footbridge rests on an early voussoir arch. The well-preserved Hellenistic Eleutherna Bridge has a triangular corbel arch. The stone corbel arch bridge is still used by the local populace. ![]() Possibly the oldest existing arch bridge is the Mycenaean Arkadiko Bridge in Greece from about 1300 BC.
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