October 2758 auc |
Fr. Apulo Caesare C.
Popillio Laena consulibus
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Following
the Roman War against the Dacians and thier surrender to Emperor Trajan,
peace again settled on the area. However this peace lasted only two years
before Decebalus, the Dacian king, raised the banner of revolt. He took
prisioner, the garrison commander of the Roman forces The Dacian
king believing that he had the advantage of the Emperor now tried to negotiate
better terms with Trajan. Trajan entered into peace discussions , but
making no promises. Meanwhile Longinus realizing that he was the factor
holding back action by Trajan, took his own life , in a decidedly courageous
and selfless act, thereby leaving Trajan ordered
a bridge built across the Danube River, and this bridge was to be a permanent
structure, consisting of a wooden bridge superstructure resting on some
twenty huge stone piers, with a massive stone abutment and arch at each
end of the bridge. The bridge was constructed at the Iron Gates, just
below the entrance to the Djerdap Gorge, where the Danube had sliced it's
way through the Western Carpathian The bridge
was built by Apollodoros of Damascus, Trajan's famed engineer and Hellenized
Syrian in 102-104 AD and it was one of the largest (if not the largest)
military engineering work of it's time. It is not known exactly which
legions built the briidge, however we do know that there were eleven legions
that could be placed in that region between Vienna and the Black Sea.
The I Italica and V Macedonia were on the lower Danube River; Five legions;
I and II Adiutrix, IIII Flavia, VII Claudia, and XIII Gemina were concentrated
in the 100km between Belgrade and the Djerdap Gorge. A further four legions
were encamped between The pictures
accompanying this article are a model of the bridge which can be found
at the Iron Gates Museum in the city of Turnu Severin, Romania. What remains
of the Trajan Bridge is an abutment on the Romanian side of the Danube
which stands just in front of the museum. We are told that everyone in
that city knows what it is and admires it greatly. (3) The remains of
the twenty stone bridge piers are now underwater, and only the abutment
on the river bank, mentioned above, are visible The construction
of the bridge piers alone must have been a herculean task. First a boat
(pontoon) bridge would have been built across the Danube to provide a
structure on which to move materials to the planned
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Cofferdams
were constructed at each planned point of a stone pier. A cofferdam is
a watertight box built of piles driven into the river bottom, which is
bigger all around than the projected size of the pier itself. The piles
were driven into the river bed by a pile-driver. Mounted on a raft which
was anchored in place over the pile. The pile driver itsel, was a large
heavy stone suspended from a derrick by a rope or When the piers reached the designated hieght, then the preconstructed wooden arches were hoisted into place. On the stone piers was built a series of wooden arches, and these in turn supported a wooden deck. In the previously mentioned relief of this bridge on Trajan's column, if the sculptor who carved the relief was accurate, Appolodoros used diagonal bracing in the wooden part of the bridge. Aa far as can be determined this is the first definite example of the truss which depends for its strength upon the rigidity of three beams fastened together to form a triangle. (7) I especially
wish to provide my thanks to Prof. Popa of the University of Bucharest
for his forwarding to me the pictures of the model of Trajan's Bridge.
I had previously tried to contact the Iron Gates Museum References:
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© NovaRoma 2005
editing by Marcus Minucius-Tiberius Audens designed by Marcus Philippus Conservatus and Franciscus Apulus Caesar |