Römerbrücke

In Trier, Germany, Römerbrücke carries the road across the Moselle on dark basalt piers. The bridge is Germany’s oldest. Roman engineers laid the surviving foundations around AD 144, after earlier wooden crossings had failed in floods. One predecessor dates to 17 BC.

Pointed upstream faces helped the piers withstand drifting ice, floodwater, and debris while trade and travel crossed above. The original crossing stretched nearly 400 metres. Seven river piers and two land piers supported a roadway broad enough for Roman chariots, with side consoles still visible. A stone deck appeared in the fourteenth century, while towers, wars, floods, and repeated rebuilding reshaped the structure.

Today, the bridge reaches about half its former length, yet cars, bicycles, and pedestrians still pass over Roman masonry. For almost two thousand years, people threw coins into the Moselle for the river goddess Mosella. Experts believe more than a million may still lie in the riverbed. Each crossing connects modern footsteps with an ancient ritual.