Bridges presentation
The stone vault probably first sprang forth in Anatolia and the
Aegean region of Asia Minor (central and western Turkey) in the 2nd millennium BC for short spans
in civic construction. The Mesopotamian civilizations introduced the first major development of
brick vaulting in the royal palaces, and also probably the first important arch bridges in the 6th
century BC.
Roman bridges
Figure 1 Ponte Saint-Martin (c 25 BC) near Torino
(Italy). Shunsuke Baba, photographer
The greatest bridge builders of antiquity were the Romans. They applied a civil engineering
repertoire on an unprecedented grand scale and achieved impressive results. Roman engineering
introduced four significant developments to the art of bridge building that never had been prominent
before: the discovery and extensive use of natural cement, development of the coffer dam, perfection
annaabi.ee 
