Trajan's Bridge

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See also: Roman Dacia
Trajan's Bridge
Serbian: Трајанов мост
Romanian: Podul lui Traian

Artistic reconstruction
Crosses Danube
Locale East of the Iron Gates, near the cities of Drobeta-Turnu Severin (Romania) and Kladovo (Serbia)
Architect Apollodorus of Damascus
Material Wood and Stone
Total length 1,135 m (3,724 ft)
Width 15 m (49 ft)
Height 19 m (62 ft)
Number of spans 20 masonry pillars
Construction begin 103
Construction end 105
Heritage status Monuments of Culture of Exceptional Importance, and Archaeological Sites of Exceptional Importance,  Serbia
Collapsed Superstructure destroyed by Hadrian
Coordinates Coordinates: 44°37′26″N 22°40′01″E / 44.623769°N 22.66705°E / 44.623769; 22.66705

Trajan's Bridge (Romanian: Podul lui Traian; Serbian: Трајанов мост, Trajanov Most) or Bridge of Apollodorus over the Danube was a Roman segmental arch bridge, the first to be built over the lower Danube. Though it was only functional for a few decades, for more than 1,000 years it was the longest arch bridge in both total and span length.[1]

The bridge was constructed in 105 AD by architect Apollodorus of Damascus for the deployment of Roman troops in the war against Dacia.

Description

Relief of the bridge on Trajan's Column showing the unusually flat segmental arches on high-rising concrete piers; in the foreground emperor Trajan sacrificing by the Danube

The bridge was situated East of the Iron Gates, near the 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.

The structure was 1,135 m (3,724 ft) long (the Danube is 800 m (2,600 ft) wide in that area), 15 m (49 ft) wide, and 19 m (62 ft) high (measured from the river's surface). At each end was a Roman castrum, each built around an entrance (crossing was possible only by walking through the camp).

Its engineer, Apollodorus of Damascus, used wooden arches, each spanning 38 m (125 ft), that were set on twenty masonry pillars (made of bricks, mortar and pozzolana cement).[2][3] It was built unusually quickly (between 103 and 105), employing the construction of a wooden caisson for each pier.[4]

Tabula Traiana

Photo of Tabula Traiana near Kladovo, Serbia.

A Roman memorial plaque ("Tabula Traiana"), 4 meters wide and 1.75 metres high, commemorating the completion of Trajan's military road is located on the Serbian side facing Romania near Ogradina. In 1972, when the Iron Gate I Hydroelectric Power Station was built, the plaque was moved from its original location, and lifted to the present place. It reads:

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

The text was interpreted by Otto Benndorf to mean:

Emperor Caesar 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.

The Tabula Traiana was declared a Monument of Culture of Exceptional Importance in 1979, and is protected by the Republic of Serbia.

Destruction/erosion and remains

The ruins at the beginning of the 20th Century, Romania.
The ruins in 2009, surrounded by a square concrete compound which was built to protect the monument from the rise of the water level following the construction of the Iron Gate I dam, Romania.


The wooden superstructure of the bridge was dismantled by Trajan's successor, Hadrian, in order to protect the empire from barbarian invasions from the North.[5]

The twenty pillars were still visible in 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 pillars remaining underwater, but in 1982 only 12 were mapped by archaeologists; the other four had probably been swept away by water. Only the entrance pillars are now visible on either bank of the Danube.[6]

In 1979, Trajan's Bridge was added to the Monument of Culture of Exceptional Importance, and in 1983 on Archaeological Sites of Exceptional Importance list, and by that it is protected by Republic of Serbia.

See also

The remains of the Drobeta fort on the left/north bank of the Danube (Romania), which secured access to Trajan's bridge. On the right/south bank of the Danube (Serbia) are the remains of the Pontes castrum, which served the same purpose.

References

  1. ↑ The bridge seems to have been surpassed in length by another Roman bridge across the Danube, Constantine's Bridge, a little-known structure whose length is given at 2,437 m (Tudor 1974b, p. 139; Galliazzo 1994, p. 319).
  2. ↑ The earliest identified Roman caisson construction was at Cosa, a small Roman colony north of Rome, where similar caissons formed a breakwater as early as 2nd century BC: International Handbook of Underwater Archaeology, 2002.
  3. ↑ Troyano, Leonardo Fernández, "Bridge Engineering - A Global Perspective", Thomas Telford Publishing, 2003
  4. ↑ In the first century BC, Roman engineers had employed wooden caissons in constructing the Herodian harbour at Caesarea Maritima: Carol V. Ruppe, Jane F. Barstad, eds. International Handbook of Underwater Archaeology, 2002, "Caesarea" pp505f.
  5. ↑ Opper, Thorsten (2008), Hadrian: Empire and Conflict, Harvard University Press, p. 67, ISBN 9780674030954 
  6. ↑ Romans Rise from the Waters

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 
  • Serban, Marko (2009), "Trajan’s Bridge over the Danube", The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 38 (2): 331–342, doi:10.1111/j.1095-9270.2008.00216.x 
  • 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 

External links

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