Puente Romano, Mérida

Puente Romano
Artistic photograph of the Puente Romano
Coordinates	38°54′47″N 6°21′03″W
Crosses	Guadiana River
Locale	Mérida, Spain
Characteristics
Design	Arch bridge
Material	Granite ashlar
Total length	790 m (incl. approaches)
Width	ca. 7.1 m
Longest span	11.6 m
No. of spans	60 (incl. 3 buried)
History
Construction end	Reign of Trajan (98–117 AD)
Location

The Puente Romano (Spanish for Roman Bridge) is a Roman bridge over the Guadiana River at Mérida, Spain. It is the longest surviving bridge from ancient times, 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 abutments. Including the approaches, the structure totals 790 m.

Close to the impressive remains of the Los Milagros aqueduct bridge, there exists another Roman bridge at Mérida, the much smaller Puente de Albarregas.

Sources

• O’Connor, Colin (1993), Roman Bridges, Cambridge University Press, pp. 106–107, ISBN 0-521-39326-4

See also

• Roman bridge
• List of Roman bridges
• Roman architecture
• Roman engineering

External links

Media related to Puente Romano (Mérida) at Wikimedia Commons

• Puente Romano (Mérida) at Structurae
• Traianus - Technical investigation of Roman public works