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[edit] Description

Modern reconstruction

Encyclopedia Brittanica 1913 Reconstruction

The bridge was situated east from the Iron Gates, nearby the present-day cities of Drobeta-Turnu Severin (Romania) and Kladovo (Serbia). Its construction was ordered by Emperor Trajan as a supply route for the Roman legions fighting in Dacia (see Trajan's Dacian Wars).

The structure was 1,135 meters in length (the Danube is 800 meters-wide in that area), 15 meters in width, and reached 19 meters in height (measured from the river's surface). At each end was situated a Roman castrum, each of them built around an entrance (crossing was possible only by walking through the camp).

Its engineer, Apollodorus of Damascus, used wooden arches set on twenty masonry pillars (made with bricks, mortar and pozzolana cement) that spanned 38-meters each ^[2]. Nevertheless, it was built over an unusually short period of time (between 103 and 105) — one possible explanation is that the river was diverted during the bridge's construction.

[edit] Tabula Traiana

Photo of Tabula Traiana near Kladovo, Serbia

A Roman memorial plaque ("Tabula Traiana"), 4 meters in width and 1.75 meters in height, commemorating the completion of Trajan's military road is located on the Serbian side facing Romania near Ogradina. It reads:

IMP. CAESAR. DIVI. NERVAE. F
NERVA TRAIANVS. AVG. GERM
PONTIF MAXIMUS TRIB POT IIII
PATER PATRIAE COS III
MONTIBVUS EXCISI(s) ANCO(ni)BVS
SVBLAT(i)S VIA(m) F(ecit)

The text was interpreted by Otto Benndorf to mean:

Emperor Nerva son of the divine Nerva, Nerva Trajan, the Augustus, Germanicus, Pontifex Maximus, invested for the fourth time as Tribune, Father of the Fatherland, Consul for the third time, excavating mountain rocks and using wood beams has made this road.

[edit] Destruction/erosion and remains

Old drawings of the still-standing pillars

The bridge was destroyed by Aurelian, after the Roman Empire withdrew its troops from Dacia.

The twenty pillars could still be seen in the year 1856, when the level of the Danube hit a record low. In 1906, the International Commission of the Danube decided to destroy two of the pillars that were obstructing navigation.

In 1932, there were 16 remaining pillars underwater, but in 1982 only 12 were mapped by archeologists — the other four had probably been swept away by water. Only the entrance pillars are nowadays visible on either bank of the Danube.^[3]

[edit] References

^ In terms of overall length, the bridge seems to have been surpassed by another Roman bridge across the Danube, Constantine's Bridge, a little-known structure whose length is given with 2437 m (Tudor 1974b, p. 139; Galliazzo 1994, p. 319).
^ Troyano, Leonardo Fernández, "Bridge Engineering - A Global Perspective", Thomas Telford Publishing, 2003
^ Romans Rise from the Waters

[edit] Further reading

Bancila, Radu; Teodorescu, Dragos (1998), "Die römischen Brücken am unteren Lauf der Donau", in Zilch, K.; Albrecht, G.; Swaczyna, A. et al., Entwurf, Bau und Unterhaltung von Brücken im Donauraum, 3. Internationale Donaubrückenkonferenz, 29–30 October, Regensburg, pp. 401–409
Galliazzo, Vittorio (1994), I ponti romani. Catalogo generale, Vol. 2, Treviso: Edizioni Canova, pp. 320–324 (No. 646), ISBN 88-85066-66-6
Griggs, Francis E. (2007), "Trajan's Bridge: The World's First Long-Span Wooden Bridge", Civil Engineering Practice 22 (1): 19–50, ISSN 0886-9685
Gušić, Sima (1996), "Traian's Bridge. A Contribution towards its Reconstruction", in Petrović, Petar, Roman Limes on the Middle and Lower Danube, Cahiers des Portes de Fer, 2, Belgrade, pp. 259–261
O’Connor, Colin (1993), Roman Bridges, Cambridge University Press, pp. 142–145 (No. T13), 171, ISBN 0-521-39326-4
Tudor, D. (1974a), "Le pont de Trajan à Drobeta-Turnu Severin", Les ponts romains du Bas-Danube, Bibliotheca Historica Romaniae Études, 51, Bucharest: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, pp. 47–134
Tudor, D. (1974b), "Le pont de Constantin le Grand à Celei", Les ponts romains du Bas-Danube, Bibliotheca Historica Romaniae Études, 51, Bucharest: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, pp. 135–166
Ulrich, Roger B. (2007), Roman Woodworking, Yale University Press, pp. 104–107, ISBN 0-300-10341-7
Vučković, Dejan; Mihajlović, Dragan; Karović, Gordana (2007), "Trajan’s Bridge on the Danube. The Current Results of Underwater Archaeological Research", Istros (14): 119–130

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Trajan's Bridge

Bridge of Apollodorus over the Danube in the Structurae database
Romans Rise from the Waters - Excavations
Traianus - Technical investigation of Roman public works
[1] Trajan's bridge near Kladovo

Coordinates: 44°37′05″N 22°37′41″E / 44.61809°N 22.62797°E / 44.61809; 22.62797

[0] In terms of overall length, the bridge seems to have been surpassed by another Roman bridge across the Danube, Constantine's Bridge, a little-known structure whose length is given with 2437 m (Tudor 1974b, p. 139; Galliazzo 1994, p. 319).

[1] Troyano, Leonardo Fernández, "Bridge Engineering - A Global Perspective", Thomas Telford Publishing, 2003

[2] Romans Rise from the Waters

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