The Roman Bridge at Saint-Thibéry was a Roman segmental arch bridge on the Via Domitia

Via Domitia

The Via Domitia was the first Roman road built in Gaul, to link Italy and Hispania through Gallia Narbonensis, across what is now southern France. The route that the Romans regularised and paved was ancient when they set out to survey it, so old that it traces the mythic route travelled by Heracles...

 in southern France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. The partly surviving structure crossed the river Hérault

Hérault

Hérault is a department in the south of France named after the Hérault river.-History:Hérault is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790...

 in Saint-Thibéry

Saint-Thibéry

Saint-Thibéry is a commune in the Hérault department in Languedoc-Roussillon in southern France.-See also:* Roman Bridge* Via Domitia* Communes of the Hérault department-References:*...

, 17 km east of Béziers

Béziers

Béziers is a town in Languedoc in southern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the Hérault department. Béziers hosts the famous Feria de Béziers, centred around bullfighting, every August. A million visitors are attracted to the five-day event...

.

Construction

The ancient bridge had nine arches with spans of 10-12 m. The roadway rested on wide piers, which were protected on both sides by arched floodways and large cutwaters. The original length of the structure is estimated as 150 m, its road width as 4 m. The missing spans are known to have been destroyed by flood some time before 1536.

The remaining arches, with a span to rise ratio of 3.3:1 (115°) or more, show a visibly flatter profile than the semi-circular arches usually preferred by Roman engineers (180°). The rib thickness varies between one-tenth to one-twentieth of the span, corresponding to a common ratio also observed at a number of other Roman stone bridges. The structure is dated to the reign of emperor Augustus

Augustus

Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...

 (30 BC–14 AD Immediately upstream an old water mill and its millrace is located.

External links

• Traianus – Technical investigation of Roman public works