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.

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

Sources

• O’Connor, Colin (1993), Roman Bridges, Cambridge University Press, pp. 106f. (SP15), ISBN 0-521-39326-4

See also

• 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