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Concept
Trajan's Bridge
Summary
Trajan's Bridge (Podul lui Traian; Трајанов мост), also called Bridge of Apollodorus over the Danube, was a Roman segmental arch bridge, the first bridge to be built over the lower Danube and one of the greatest achievements in Roman architecture. Though it was only functional for 165 years, it is often considered to have been the longest arch bridge in both total and span length for more than 1,000 years.
The bridge was constructed in 105 AD by instruction of Emperor Trajan by architect Apollodorus of Damascus, from Damascus, Roman Syria, before his Second Dacian War to allow Roman troops to cross the river. Fragmentary ruins of the bridge's piers can still be seen today.
The bridge was situated east of the Iron Gates, near the present-day cities of Drobeta-Turnu Severin in Romania and Kladovo in Serbia. Its construction was ordered by the Emperor Trajan as a supply route for the Roman legions fighting in Dacia.
The structure was long (the Danube is now wide in that area), wide, and high, measured from the surface of the river. At each end was a Roman castrum, each built around an entrance, so that crossing the bridge was possible only by walking through the camps.
The castra were called Pontes and Drobeta (Drobetis). On the right bank, at the modern village of Kostol near Kladovo, a castrum Pontes with a civilian settlement was built in 103. It occupied several hectares and was built concurrently with the bridge. Remnants of the long castrum with thick ramparts are still visible today. Fragments of ceramics, bricks with Roman markings, and coins have been excavated. A bronze head of Emperor Trajan has also been discovered in Pontes. It was part of a statue which was erected at the bridge entrance and is today kept in the National Museum in Belgrade. On the left bank there was a Drobeta castrum. There was also a bronze statue of Trajan on that side of the bridge.
The bridge's engineer, Apollodorus of Damascus, used wooden arches, each spanning , set on twenty masonry pillars made of bricks, mortar, and pozzolana cement.
Official source
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