Ponte Fabricio, Rome

Ponte Fabricio is the ancient river crossing that joins Tiber Island to the bank by Lungotevere de’ Cenci. It dates to sixty-two BC, built under Lucius Fabricius, the official charged with Rome’s roads; inscriptions in its arches preserve his name. Its fabric has endured so remarkably that it remains the city’s oldest bridge retaining its original arrangement.

Notice the marble herms on the parapet. Their paired Janus faces explain the name Ponte dei Quattro Capi, or Bridge of the Four Heads. Beneath the deck, a water passage cut through the pier eases the river’s force in flood.

The structure pairs broad, shallow arches with a wedge-shaped upstream base, while its outer skin is travertine and later brickwork recalls a seventeenth-century repair. It was repaired after a flood in the Roman era, then restored and repaved under popes.