Roman bridge spans the Tiber– and the centuries

WHILE admiring the work being done on the Queensferry Crossing, I couldn’t help but wonder how long the bridge will stand once it is completed.

My mate says he was in Rome a few years ago and there is a Bridge, built in Roman times, which is still standing. Which bridge would that be? – A. I think he will be referring to the Pons Fabricius, also known as Ponte dei Quattro Capi, which is the oldest Roman bridge in Rome still in its original state.

Built in 62BC, to replace an earlier wooden bridge destroyed by fire, it spans half of the Tiber River, from the Campus Martius on the east bank to Tiber Island in the middle.

Constructed from two wide arches, supported by a central pillar in the middle of the stream, its core is constructed of tuff, a light porous rock, and the outer facing today is made of bricks and travertine.

Quattro Capi (“four heads”) refers to the two marble pillars of the two-faced Janus on the parapet, which were moved here from the nearby Church of St Gregory in the 14th Century.

An original Latin inscription on the travertine commemorates its builder, which translates as “Lucius Fabricius, Son of Gaius, Superintendent of the roads, took care and likewise approved that it be built”.

A later inscription, in smaller lettering, records that the bridge was later restored under Pope Innocent XI, probably around 1679.