The Ancient Roman Bridge, a Timeless Engineering Feat

Ancient Romans were the first major bridge builders. Through extensive use of the arch and concrete they perfected, they built the biggest and longest-lasting bridges of antiquity.

The Puente Romano de Mérida in Spain, completed in 117 AD, is the world’s longest surviving bridge of the ancient times. Ángel M. Felicísimo from Mérida, España, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Stone arch after stone arch. That is the basics of an Ancient Roman bridge. Their shape and form don’t change much from that. Although it doesn’t sound fancy presented like this, it is yet another of the Ancient Romans' exceptional engineering feats. I’ll explain why.

The key to the Ancient Roman bridge was the “true” arch, built with stone, and the concrete they so expertly perfected, the Roman concrete or opus caementicium. Yet, alongside these two key components were important technological features and design details.

Origins

Arches were the first evolution away from the post-and-lintel structure that had existed for thousands of years in Neolithic civilizations (i.e.: until 2,000 BC in the Egyptian, Hellenistic, or Indian civilizations). It was initially a ‘corbel arch’ or ‘corbelled arch’, built as the higher the structure rose the more it offset towards the centerline. It is called a “false arch” because it is not self-supporting per sé.