The Puente Romano is a Roman bridge

Roman bridge

Roman bridges, built by ancient Romans, were the first large and lasting bridges built. Roman bridges were built with stone and had the arch as its basic structure....

 over the Guadiana River at Mérida, Spain

Mérida, Spain

Mérida is the capital of the autonomous community of Extremadura, western central Spain. It has a population of 57,127 . The Archaeological Ensemble of Mérida is a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1993.- Climate :...

. It is the longest surviving bridge from ancient times

Ancient history

Ancient history is the study of the written past from the beginning of recorded human history to the Early Middle Ages. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, with Cuneiform script, the oldest discovered form of coherent writing, from the protoliterate period around the 30th century BC...

, having once featured an estimated overall length of 755 m with 62 spans. Today, there are 60 spans (three of which are buried on the southern bank) on a length of 721 m between the abutment

Abutment

An abutment is, generally, the point where two structures or objects meet. This word comes from the verb abut, which means adjoin or having common boundary. An abutment is an engineering term that describes a structure located at the ends of a bridge, where the bridge slab adjoins the approaching...

s. Including the approaches, the structure totals 790 m.

Annexed to the bridge is the Alcazaba of Mérida, a Moorish fortification built in 835.

Close to the remains of the Los Milagros aqueduct bridge

Acueducto de los Milagros

The Acueducto de los Milagros is a ruined Roman aqueduct in Mérida, Spain, formerly the Roman colony of Emerita Augusta....

, there exists another Roman bridge at Mérida, the much smaller Puente de Albarregas.

External links

• Traianus – Technical investigation of Roman public works