History of Pont du Gard
| Around 50 AD the Romans had need water for the city of Nimes which became increasingly important. then they imagined to fetch water from Uzès, a city which had a source in the valley of the Eure. To transport water from Uzès to Nîmes imagined the Romans built an aqueduct 50 km across the hills, because if Uzès and Nîmes are distant only 20 km, it was not possible to make a straight line for various reasons. It was a huge work that followed the natural slope of the ground and defied all obstacles the most important of which was called the River Gardon or Gard. This river that seems, sometimes, if asleep can wake up in anger and take everything. For the cross and keep the aqueduct tunnel balance maintained at 70 m above the sea, it was necessary to create a work disproportionate, a bridge that was surprising challenge the river and connect the two shores of roach building on top of hills, above the throat. This was the Pont du Gard. |
The construction of the aqueduct in its entirety lasted maybe ten years and the Pont du Gard itself asked 4 or 5 years for its construction. How many men have worked? Under what conditions? The story does not say so. What we can guess is certainly disproportionate to the reality. All this for a relative efficiency in time since it seems that the famous Aqueduct operates only 150 years for several reasons including the most important was the financial burden of maintaining this structure in addition to the fact that city of Nîmes with water declined sharply gardens of Fontaine had returned enough. |
