42
parted from Rome^ as from one common center, and, like the radii of a circle, extended
to the extremity of the empire), we muft agree, that the modems have not as yet excelled,
or even equalled, the ancients in the perfe6lion, magnificence, and folidity, of their public
undertakings. Thofe indeed of the prefent age, which come tlic neareft to theirs, are oiufortifications
and canals.
But to return to the fubje6l of the annexed View. This fuperb building is fituated
between two tremendous mountains, the elevated fummits of which, covered with trees
and ihrubs of various forts, form a moll pleafing and delightful valley, watered by the
Garden, or Gardonis, a imall but romantic river running among rocks, the fand of which
produces gold, as we.learn from M. de Reaumur, in his effay on this fubject, inferted in
the Memoirs of the French Academy for the year 1718. It rifes from among the permanent
fnow which covcrs the moimtains of Cevennes, and which, after frequent windings,
runs through this Bridge or Aqueduit, and throws itfelf into tlie Rhone, at fome diilance
from the city of Baucaire, or Belloquada-a.
The pellucid and azured waters of this river, whofe courfe is frequently checked by huge
pieces of rock detached from the adjacent mountains, form a number of natural cafcades,
which being overfhadowed on each fide with trees and Ihrubs, they wonderfully improve
the beauty of the fcene; whilll, on the other hand, the noife made by the ruihing of the
waters over fuch immenfe pieces of rock, and re-echoed by the neighbouring hills, ferves to
break that awful filence which the folitude of the fituation woiald naturally infpire. Add
to this, the noble and fuperb piece of antiquit)-, which abfolutely unites the two mountains
before mentioned, and which has flood, as it were, unimpaired for fo many ages, confpire
to render this the moft raviihing and enchanting fpot the Autlior ever beheld; affording at
the fame time moil ample matter for the contemplative mind.
The whole of this edifice is conftrudied of large blocks of free-ilone, moft of which are
placed one over the other without cement, and fo remarkably hard, that tlie angles remain
as fliarp as if they had been lately cut.
With regard to the dimenfions and proportions of this edifice, few writers have agreed.
Even the learned DoiSors Brown and SmoUet have differed in this point; the fonner
making the top to be one hundred and eighty-fix feet above the water of the river, and
the latter (comprehending the aqueduiit on the top) one hundred and feventy-four feet
three inches. The Author therefore flatters himfelf that his own calculations, taken with
great precifion and accuracy, will not be unacceptable to the public.
43
The total length of the building, between the t ntains, is eight hundred and
feventy Englifh feet and a half; its height (including alfo the aqueduii: at the top) only
one hundred and fifty-fix firom the furface of the river ; and its width, taken from the firfl:
tire of arches, thirty-eight feet five inches and a half, without the modem addition, which
will be noticed hereafter.
This beautiful work confifts of tliree bridges, or tires of arches, one above the other,
of the Tufcan order, the fymmetry of which is inconceivable. The firñ of thefe, wiiich is
fixty-four feet and three quartere in height, and five hundred and thirty-one and two
thirds in length, is formed of fix arches, of different widths, extending in the fpan from
feventy-two to eighty feet.
The fécond, which is one h u n t e d and twenty-nine feet and a half above the river, is
eight hundred and forty feet and a half in length, and conflits of eleven arches, of tlie
fame dimenflons as the firfl.
The third, which is twenty-fix feet and a half above the fécond, or one hundred and
fifty-fix from the level of the river, is eight hundred and feventy feet and a half in length,
and confifts of tliirty-five arches, cach of feventeen feet and three quarters in diameter.
Above thefe archcs was the Aqueduct or Canal, the greateft part of which is flill exiiling,
of four feet three inches in width, and five feet three inches and a half in height. The
internal part of this Aqueduét is pargeted or plaftered with a ftrong cement, of about
tiiree inches thick, covered over with a layer of a kind of red bole armoniac. The bottom
is formed of fmall rugged ñones mixed with lime, the whole fonning a folid of nine inches
in thicknefs.
It is the general opinion that this famous Bridge was ereâed by the Romans in the
Auguflan age. There is however in reality no pofitive proof of this fadt, though numerous
have been tlie refearches of the learned to difcover witli certainty tlie time of its
ereflion, and by whom it was executed.
The only thing which has in fome degree thro^vn any light on the fabjedt, and which
has furnifhed much trouble to the French Antiquarians to decypher their meaning, are the
three following letters, A. JE. A. difcovered at the commencement of tlie prefent century
on one of the arches of the fécond tire ; for thcre_ are neither bafs-reliefs nor infcriptions
on any part of die building.
The foiur different explanations which have been tlie moil generally admitted, and
which M. Gautier takes notice of in his Defcription of tlie Antiquities at Nifmes, are as