Pons Fabricius

The Pons Fabricius (Italian: Ponte Fabricio, "Fabrician Bridge") or Ponte dei Quattro Capi, is the oldest bridge still standing in Rome, Italy. It was built in 62 BC and crosses part of the Tiber River. The bridge goes from the Campus Martius on the east side to Tiber Island in the middle. West of the island is another bridge called the Pons Cestius.

The name Quattro Capi means "four heads." It comes from two marble pillars with two faces each, called Janus herms. These pillars were placed on the bridge's edge in the 14th century. They were moved from a nearby church called the Church of St Gregory in an area known as Monte Savello.

Bridge

The Pons Fabricius is the oldest bridge still standing in Rome, Italy. It was built in 62 BC to replace an older wooden bridge that had been destroyed by fire. A man named Lucius Fabricius, who was in charge of roads in Rome, had it built.

The bridge is 62 meters long and 5.5 meters wide. It has two wide arches that are not curved like earlier Roman bridges. The bridge’s core is made from a special kind of rock, and its outer surface is made from bricks and a type of stone called travertine. During big floods, a special part of the bridge helps guide the extra water.

An old writing on the stone remembers the builder. It says that Lucius Fabricius made sure the bridge was built. This writing is shown four times on the bridge. Later, another writing records that the bridge was fixed up by a pope named Innocent XI, probably in the year 1679.