Pont du gard france

 

 

 

Pont du gard france

 

The following texts are the property of their respective authors and we thank them for giving us the opportunity to share for free to students, teachers and users of the Web their texts will used only for illustrative educational and scientific purposes only.

 

All the information in our site are given for nonprofit educational purposes

The information of medicine and health contained in the site are of a general nature and purpose which is purely informative and for this reason may not replace in any case, the council of a doctor or a qualified entity legally to the profession.

 

 

Pont du gard france

 

PONT DU GARD

Nimes - population of 50,000 in the south of Gaul (modern day France)
- become a Colonia in 27BC and flourished under Augustus
- Marcus Agrippa took a particular interest in the town over the period 20BC-19BC
- natural spring existed within the town walls, but the town needed an aqueduct too.

Aqueduct      - built between 20BC-14BC (depending on which source you believe)
- aqueduct brought water from a spring near Uzes 50km away
- supplied the town with 20,000 tons of water a day
- much of the aqueduct is subterranean
- water is channelled into a large circular basin with a settling tank.
- the aqueduct was carefully built with a gradual drop of 1 in 3,000, using simple gravitational flow instead of expensive pressure systems (siphon system using lead pipes) to channel the water over obstacles. One obstacle was the river Gardon (Gard), 21km north of Nimes.
- the bridge on the side is not Roman.

Building         - not expensive or time-consuming to build
the                 - arches were placed parallel to each other which allowed the same framework to
arch               be used for the vaults
- blocks (some 6 tonnes in weight) are held together by pressure and not cement, concrete, or iron clamps.
- blocks were labelled before construction to speed up construction
- labour costs lowered by using slaves and soldiers
- there is no carved decoration

Arches          - placed in such a way as to make the utilitarian structure look beautiful
- 6 arches on the lowest level, 11 on the second, and 35 on the top.
- the arches are made from uncemented masonry. The stone was locally quarried, to save on transport costs.
- top level consist of one arch which gives a narrow face to minimise wind stress.
- the second level has vaults made of three arches.
- the bottom level has 4 arches, built to withstand the rivers currents.
- three of the top tiers arches equals the length of one arch in the bottom row
- however the central arch in the bottom tier equals four small arches in the top row, this larger arch is also the same width as the arch directly above it.
- weight of structure lessened by decreasing arch depths from top to bottom
- the central arches are wider so they do not have any material in the river bed and as such they can withstand the force of the river in flood.
- pier heads ion the bottom row are wedge shaped to “cut” through a floods current

Bosses – left on structure to provide a setting for timber framework to be built upon when repairs were needed.

Channel carrying water was lined with a hard, waterproof cement so the water flows smoothly and does not leak.

Three arches built because a single row of arches across the gorge would be too high. The properties of the arch mean it could withstand the weight and pressure of the structure and the water it carried.

 

Source : http://www.rosehill-college.co.nz/DataStore/Pages/PAGE_1035/Docs/Documents/Keynotes2.doc

Web site link: http://www.rosehill-college.co.nz/

Google key word : Pont du gard france file type : doc

Author : not indicated on the source document of the above text

If you are the author of the text above and you not agree to share your knowledge for teaching, research, scholarship (for fair use as indicated in the United States copyrigh low) please send us an e-mail and we will remove your text quickly.

 

Pont du gard france

 

If you want to quickly find the pages about a particular topic as Pont du gard france use the following search engine:

 

 

Pont du gard france

 

Please visit our home page

 

Larapedia.com Terms of service and privacy page

 

 

 

Pont du gard france