All waterways lead to Rome: The legacy of Pont du Gard

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All waterways lead to Rome: The legacy of Pont du Gard

Published: 19 May. 2025, 00:05

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Kim Bong-ryeol

The author is an architect and professor emeritus at Korea National University of Arts.

“All roads lead to Rome.” To govern its vast empire, ancient Rome built a dense, web-like network of roads, many of which have lasted for millennia. But equally important was the empire’s water infrastructure. The Romans applied their advanced engineering not only to roadways and bridges but also to aqueducts, which became critical for sustaining urban life across the empire.

The Pont du Gard aqueduct in Nîmes, southern France. [KIM BONG-RYEOL]

The southern French city of Nîmes traces its roots to the Roman colony of Nemausus, founded in the first century B.C. Once among the wealthiest cities in Gaul, Nîmes still boasts major Roman ruins, including a large amphitheater and the Maison Carrée. To supply its citizens — numbering in the hundreds of thousands — with clean water, Roman engineers built a 50-kilometer-long (31-mile-long) aqueduct system, drawing from springs in Uzès. The most iconic segment of that system is the Pont du Gard, a towering aqueduct bridge that spans the Gardon River.

Designed around 19 B.C. by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, the son-in-law of Emperor Augustus, the Pont du Gard remains one of the best-preserved Roman aqueducts in existence. Built in three tiers of limestone arches, the structure is both functional and monumental. The lowest tier consists of six arches with spans of up to 24 meters (79 feet), supporting an intermediate level with eleven similar arches. The topmost level originally carried 47 arches, of which 35 remain today, and supported a closed conduit to transport water.

The bridge’s design showcases Roman ingenuity. Five piers immersed in the river were constructed with streamlined foundations to reduce water resistance. Small protruding stones in the structure likely served as footholds for maintenance workers. The water channel at the very top, about 1.2 meters deep, was covered with stone slabs to minimize evaporation and contamination. The slope of the channel — only 1 centimeter (0.39 inchs) per 182 meters — illustrates the extraordinary precision of Roman engineering. At full capacity, the system delivered around 40,000 cubic meters (10.6 million gallons) of water per day, roughly equivalent to the current water supply of Cheongju, a mid-sized city in Korea.

In ancient Rome, the provision of fresh water was considered a vital public service. Vitruvius, the Roman architect and engineer, detailed construction methods for aqueducts in his foundational treatise "De Architectura" (circa 15 B.C.). At its peak, the capital was served by 11 separate aqueducts, supplying a volume of water comparable to that used in modern-day San Francisco. The abundance of water helped prevent disease and supported the social culture of Roman public baths, reinforcing both the civic pride and health of the empire.

Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.