Roman Wooden bridge
The picture shows what the wooden bridge that the Roman legionaries built to cross the Rhine River must have looked like.
Caesar provides a detailed description of the technique used to make it in his De Bello Gallico.
The first was built in 55 BC, and according to archaeological finds, in a place to be identified with Neuwied, 15 km downstream of Koblenz and south of Bonn.
The second one was built two years later in 53 BC, a little further upstream (about 2 km), in a locality between Urmitz and Weissenturm.
Both bridges were built during the two campaigns conducted by Caesar against the Germans, as part of the conquest of Gaul.
It was an example of high military engineering in which the Romans were unsurpassed masters. What is amazing even for modern engineers is that the legionaries took only 10 days to build the bridge.
Thank you. Roman History
Comments
Post a Comment