How Romans built bridges over water

Roman bridge in Cordoba, Spain

Pons Fabricius, the oldest bridge in Rome, is still in its original state.

The Romans employed the arch in the construction of their bridges to span the Tiber River, approximately 100 m wide. The actual arches were composed of voussoir blocks typically faced in ashlar blocks (tuff, travertine) with a concrete rubble core. When building bridges across moving bodies of water, Roman engineers would begin by laying a foundation. 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.

Roman city x Starry Night

The Romans employed the arch in the construction of their bridges to span the Tiber River, approximately 100 m wide.  The actual arches were composed of voussoir blocks typically faced in ashlar blocks (tuff, travertine) with a concrete rubble core. The oldest bridge of Rome was the Pons Sublicius, constructed of wood (7C BC), downstream from the Tiber Island.  The oldest extant bridge is the Pons Fabricius (62 BC), still in use, connecting the Tiber Island to the Campus Martius.

An ancient Roman bridge that spanned the Wadi al Murr near Mosul, Iraq, in the 1920s. Max von Oppenheim was submitted to National Geographic along with a manuscript for a story about his work at Tell Halaf, Syria. Apparently there would have been a long road above this remaining piece that stretched for miles, that's just one arch that would have supported it.

They built them so well, they're still standing today.

Everywhere I go, everything I do, no matter what happens, all I do is think & dream about the #RomanEmpire and I have no idea why. Please help.

My grandfather was in the Roman Empire

And some of those bridges are still intact up to this day. Shows you how good they are in terms of engineering and architecture.