 Let's take a walk today along the Tiber River with architect Manuel Bravo and talk about ancient Rome This is one of my favorite things to do or I want People to get a sense of ancient Rome come down to the Tiber River This was the connection to the rest of the Mediterranean It is so essential and of course now we have the big flood walls and when you build the flood walls The ponds Kestius here is rebuilt is kind of dismantled and rebuilt on the other side Of course you have the magnificent ponds Fabricius 62 BC So I love this kind of this is connection to antiquity with the Tiber River And of course because of the Tiber Island historical in itself You had that easier place to cross the Tiber so this becomes one of those focal points for exchange of ideas Commerce trade you get so much by standing here, right? So ancient Romans they they all they had different so like in the early Republic They had different civilizations in different areas of the of the hills, right? Yeah So kind of the difficult Place to defend I guess is a forum area and so that's why they all came to trade there, right? Yes So this was kind of a way to connect everything. Yeah, but then also Through the Tiber they came from all the way from Ostia, right? Absolutely all the ships from the Mediterranean and all that But how many actual? Actual bridges from antiquity do we have that that that our original so when we come and take a look at I mean They were over a dozen bridges from antiquity When we go around and look at the ones that we can connect to the past the real standout of the ponds Fabricius 62 BC This is the ponds a kestius really most of what we see as 4th century 80 But read it dismantled and rebuilt when they built the flood walls in the 19th century So the really authentic one is the ponsorica is never destroyed never destroyed by a flood from all of antiquity and then you have Way upstream heavily rebuilt and reconstructed you have the ponds milveous Which is where Constantine fights maxentius, but that's been rebuilt several times over so not Authentic the other one is down the street. The other bridge. It really stands out is the broken It's called the ponte roto the broken bridge But that that we have one arcade still standing is Agustin and date so if we talk about ancient Roman bridges in this general vicinity We have one two and three that we can really look at and look at how the Romans built their bridges, right? I like how so kind of the more the most famous one I would say it's the San Angelo Bridge, right? Oh first, you know that's absolutely That one got reconstructed a bit, right? So it's a Substantially, but you're absolutely right another ancient bridge that connects to the mausoleum of Hadrian, right? That if you think about all the other bridges in between if you think about all the other bridges breaking apart falling apart Flooding and so forth what's left is the bridges crossing the Tiber Island And you got to go all the way the Pons Aelius and that's it So the city became even that much larger that much harder to navigate through because it's not an easy way to cross Except for these two areas. So you're right Pons Aelius is a definitive Roman bridge Obviously, it has a new look to it But the core of that of that bridge really is still ancient 2nd century AD, okay? And so they built the what the floodwall in the 19th century. Yes So, you know, Rome used to have a this great relationship with the river absolutely You know, you would it would flood but you wouldn't have the river right there, you know Yeah, all the bit all the buildings came right up to the water's edge But how how was it? because You get the bridge to that level And so how how did this go down? It was it was was there sort of a natural In yeah, yeah, yeah, if you look at the ancient bridges here is no exception They're kind of coming up like that So we don't have some of the we don't have this subsequent ancient ground level Which by and large was lower than the street level of Lungotevere today. So yes, this Bridges would have they're coming up. It would have a little more extreme With the original ground level around the rest of the city and something that's really interesting to me is the Porto di Ripeta Yes, because that used to be this great kind of Baroque opening into the river I mean it is still there, but it's kind of neglected and forgotten. It doesn't have the same kind of But now it's only a flood wall, right? Correct. Yeah. Yeah, I mean it's just there was a I mean, that's the one of the greatest I would say in a certain sense tragedies of this whole story. Yes, we have a new capital of the country Yes, we now have definitively let's hope and did the floodings that would destroy all the beautiful Structures or damage those structures in the campus Marches area, but as a result, you know I mean tourists come here and they're like where's the Tiber because you can't even see it and there's no real Continued life here. So I mean look, this is underwater typically at some point every year in the winter So you can't build anything permanently here So we have definitely lost that connection the only way to get the connection today is you got to walk down here and Feel that that that kind of connection but but by and large the the width of the Tiber Not divided by the Tiber Island is about a hundred meters. Okay, and you can even take a little boat ride in the summer Just outside of the center of Rome all the way to Ostia and Tika and feel that kind of connection, right? But otherwise, you know, this is this was that that's super highway that brought all those goods that brought the albos That brought the columns and without this river connected to the ventrary and we'd have nothing So it was all important to the Romans brought all the goods to feed the population of a million. Okay. It's essential I think I read somewhere. I think was the Aburbe condita or so I don't know where I read it But that the first bridge was made to connect the Yaniculum, which is the Hill to the rest of the city. What was in that area or why did they decided to connect it? So the real the history about the the bridging and the initial bridge first built in wood according to tradition the puns of the kiss For which yeah, that's one of the kiss and they argue. I mean, I there's lots of scholarship. A lot of ink has been spilled Really discussing about where it was originally located, which traditionally is further down from where we're standing right now It's beyond the Tiber Island and so forth closer to the Aventine Hill at the Aventine Hill So there's that kind of argument going on But the basic the bottom line was the bridge is there to connect to different people So the people that were initially in the early Roman times Over on that side were even a Truscan, you know in the city of A is nine kilometers north of you So part of it was just connecting people for trade before the bridges It was ferrying people across and the easiest place to ferry people across are these two narrow spots Because of the sandbar that becomes you know, Tiber Island So this is the early place where you're crossing and then it's time to build a bridge But make the bridge of wood so that if somebody comes and attacks you you can break it apart So that's that's the story, but I mean people are coming from you know all Areas around Rome into Rome and one of the main paths from the north that via Salaria So the salt road it's coming from the north coming through and continuing to the salt pans Where Austin is going to develop okay, so part of it was just well I do need to cross the Tiber River from this side to go to the salt pans So let's talk a little bit just about the architecture of the of the bridge itself So I've seen that some of them have a little hole in the middle That's for me for the flooding absolutely flows more freely, right? So in other words, I've got less resistance because I have a big hole in the middle of it Genius, right? Right. Yeah, and Yeah, so it's a kind of a pretty functional thing and also it really leaves a little bit of the weight Yeah, and then so think about us walking around Rome and you walk around Rome today near the pantheon You see a marker that says here's the flood of 1870, right? So take that flood 1870 which wasn't even a bad flood compared to some of the earlier floods in the Renaissance time that are documented which would be even You know 15 meter 15 feet higher up, but then take that reality over here whether it's much lower This was entirely submerged. These these bridges were entirely under water You know maybe once every couple of years So they had to withstand a ton and it's not just the water to think about the debris coming through right the timbers of the broken Ships kind of like in Egypt that the Nile sort of floated every year, right? Yeah, and that made the land very fertile Yeah, in this case, it didn't make the land very fertile I wanted to dedicate that that theater the theater of bulbous and now I have to go to the inauguration in a boat So the Romans kind of live with the fact that sometimes there's a flood and that's why they didn't have at first They didn't have a lot of constructions in the campus martyrs, right exactly which is Now like the city center and the place where everybody It just goes to see the famous monuments, right? I mean, Trevi fountain and the pass and I'm gonna imagine the irony of it all that, you know Initially for hundreds and hundreds of years. The roms are probably gonna build anything there. It's a floodplain It's ridiculous, but because it's a big open space. That's what you can develop So it already starts in the fifth century the the villa publica and the site for the voting That's already 435 BC and then it kind of doesn't have much more beyond that But they're playing fields. They're charity racing places They're places for the military to practice the maneuvers, right? So they use it when it's dry and then the real step up really is Pompid the grave he says look, this is a huge opportunity So I'm gonna put something here and it's gonna be a definitive new permanent structure in the campus marches area And it rose up around 45 to 50 meters in height is what we think okay That would have been a monster statement. That was his his six Why does it the theater theater complex that really would have been an enormous statement? And he would have dominated the entire landscape with the campus marshes And at that time how did they so did they at first not avoid the flooding or at some point they So they always are gonna have with the passing time they have more and more Regulations of the of the Tiber dredging of the Tiber Flood walls for the Tiber and so on but most of it I mean is clearing the path so to make sure it's not Too jammed up with you know timbers and then boats and so forth The real reality is that they were very confident at that point with concrete. So they could Pour down the pilings in wood pour in the concrete and they thought you know what this is gonna be stable enough To sustain that massive weight of the rest of the structure. They just I think of it They knew they were gonna have to deal with flooding They knew that but they thought this is something that's gonna be able to weather those storms. Okay, and it was that's nice So yeah, so bridges were a great really great thing because they connected places they they really great structures that Can be if in the way of the Roman construction can be replicated in many places and they can connect these different sides especially at that time that Room was a very small city at first. Yes, and they started to to Grow and including they started to include different communities and different settlements that were around The city right right and I mean ultimately I mean when we look at the the city with the final number of bridges It's it's pretty phenomenal and that really speaks to the the factor and the impure appeared How much traffic there is here? How much movement was required and so they just necessitated more and more and more bridges It's kind of it's amazing. So you go to downtown Rome today There's a whole series of modern bridges you can basically replace each one of them with an ancient bridge There are that many bridges, but there were that many people There's so many ways that you can learn about the aspects of ancient Rome and its legacy If you do not yeah, look at this guy if you do not follow Manuel Bravo and his YouTube channel Manuel Bravo You are missing out. So get involved subscribe Of course, you can follow into Rome live definitely follow Manuel and you'll learn so much so many aspects of ancient Rome and its legacy And especially its architecture Especially its architecture and not just in Rome you can go around So much of Egypt, Turkey All sorts of places that you probably like so have a look