The Pont du Gard is an ancient aqueduct bridge located in southern France. It is located near the town of Vers-Pont-du-Gard. This bridge was constructed by the Roman Empire. It is the highest of all elevated Roman aqueducts, and one of the best preserved.
It was built as three tiers of archways to bring freshwater to the city of Nimes. It was part of a 50 kilometers long aqueduct. The aqueduct was in use between the 1st to 4th century AD. It supplied the city with around 200,000 cubic meters of water.
Quick Facts: –
- The bridge was built over the Valley of Gardon River in southern France.
- Approximately one thousand men labored for five years to build the Pont du Gard Bridge.
- Similar to many famous constructions of the Roman Empire, this bridge was also built without mortar.
- It was constructed in 19 BC by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, the son-in-law of the famous Emperor Augustus.
- This bridge has gone through a series of renovations between the 18th and 21st centuries.
- Originally, this bridge was 360 meters long. Today, it is measured at 275 meters in length and stands 48 meters tall.
- Because of its historical importance, Pont du Gard was added to UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites in 1985.
- This bridge took around 15 years of time to get constructed. Approximately 30 million shelly limestones have been used.
- All of these stones were precisely cut to perfectly fit one with another.
- In recent history, the bridge has survived several floods and was subjected to several restoration projects.
