Pont du Gard. Descriptions & Excursions.

The Pont du Gard (bridge over the river Gard) was built by the Romans for domestic needs: to throw an aqueduct across the Gard River to supply drinking water to the city of Nimes. The height of this structure is 49 meters, the length is 275 meters. Once it was only a part of a whole system of bridges and aqueducts stretching 48 km from the source of water to Nîmes. It is a functional engineering structure without any decorative elements, intended for water supply, but executed with impressive architectural grace.

The Pont du Gard consists of arcades arranged in three tiers. Six arches form the lower tier, eleven - the middle, and thirty-five make up the upper tier, directly along which the water supply runs. The stone blocks are laid with simple masonry, without facing; rough stones protruding from the sides were used as supports for wooden scaffolding.

These protruding stones do not look very elegant and give the whole appearance of the structure a kind of architectural incompleteness. But, apparently, they were needed to care for the aqueduct. Since the water in these places is very saturated with mineral salts, their deposits over time layered on the bottom of the water supply system and had to be removed.

From the upper arcade, in those places where the ceiling stones fell out, you can see the bottom of the water pipe. the slope of the aqueduct itself is 1: 3000, the elevation difference between the initial (source) and final (Nim) points is 17 meters.

To the astonishment of scientists, it turned out that only one of the six lower arches of the bridge is carrying. In addition, the Pont du Gard crosses the river not at right angles, but slightly curved towards the current.

More informations about Pont du Gard You can find at the Official site of Pont du Gard Tourism.