Pont du Gard

In the past few months I've had the opportunity to see and be impressed by many of Mother Nature's creations.  I've also had to chance to see many man-made structures that have been equally as impressive. Close or at the top of the list for those structures made by man would have to be Pont du Gard,  which we visited last Saturday. 

Pont du Gard is a 2000 year old Roman aqueduct bridge that is part of an aqueduct that runs from a spring  to the city of Nimes more than 30 miles away. In Roman times the aqueduct supplied about 44 million gallons of water per day to Nimes which at the time had a population of around 50,000. The actual bridge aqueduct is a tremendous work of art and engineering, not taking into account the roughly 31 miles of aqueduct that was built underground, tunneled through solid rock and also smaller bridges above ground.

Pont du Gard - 160 feet from the top to the river below.

A trail will take you to a point that provides a nice view of the aqueduct and countryside

Tunnel next to the aqueduct bridge - water continued through here towards Nimes

Notice the protruding blocks that were used for scaffolding during construction

18th century bridge built right next to the aqueduct. 

2nd level archway

The top were the water flowed - no water now and no admittance either.

An impressive sight from all directions

The bridge itself consists of 3 tiers of receding arches with the top tier consisting of the actual aqueduct in which the water flowed towards Nimes. Immediately after the water passed through Pond du Gard it then passed through a tunnel hammered out of solid rock, which would have been no easy task just by itself.

All the stones for the bridge were quarried, cut and put into place with only the tools and technology available during the time. The stones, some of them weighing 6 tons were cut to such exact specifications that mortar was not used in the construction of the bridge. 

From a distance or standing next to this bridge it would be hard for anyone not to appreciate what it took to build it and just the fact that it has survived nearly 2000 years. It is no surprise that Pont du Gard is one of the top 5 tourist destinations in all of France.