bridges-msg - 11/13/98
Medieval bridges.
NOTE: See also the files: castles-msg, buildings-msg, cities-msg, b-battles-art, castles-lnks, travel-msg, p-tourism-art, commerce-msg.
************************************************************************
NOTICE -
This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.
This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org
I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter.
The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors.
Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s).
Thank you,
Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous
Stefan at florilegium.org
************************************************************************
From: STEWARTL%WOO1.LEA1 at leav-emh.ARmy.MIL (LOU STEWART)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Stamford Bridge
Date: 1 Mar 1994 10:04:00 -0500
Pavel asked about the dimensions of Stamford Bridge.
David Smurthwaite, in _The Complete Guide to the Battlefields of Britain_,
mentions that the Stamford Bridge of 1066 was demolished in 1727, and a
new bridge was later built 400 yards downstream. He gives a well-drawn
map of the area, but no dimensions of the bridge. He does, however,
show detailed placement of the English and Viking foot and mounted
forces with arrows to show their movement.
Snorri Sturluson, in _King Harald's Saga_, tells us only that Stamford
Bridge is on the River Derwent, seven miles east of York.
David Howarth, in _1066, The Year of the Conquest_, wrote that the River
Derwent is not very big, but too big to cross by anything but a bridge.
All accounts tell of one enormous Viking who stood on the bridge and
defended it single-handed, killing about 40 Englishmen. No one could
reach him until one man found a boat, or swill-tub and drifted down
the river unseen, under the bridge, and speared him up through the
chinks in the wooden deck. This implies that the bridge could not
have been much more than seven feet wide, the "swing of an axe."
There were no indications of the length of the bridge, or its
height in these references. Perhaps someone else will be able to
provide better information.
Luigsech ni Ifearnain, Calanais Nuadh, Calontir
From: corliss at hal.PHysics.wayne.EDU (David J. Corliss)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Stamford Bridge
Date: 1 Mar 1994 13:48:02 -0500
Conjecture Only:
Why would any one ever build a bridge in B.F. East Riding of Yorkshire wider
than needed to get a wagon over the river? Stamford Bridge was probably about
five feet wide. This is a very adequate size for a single defender.
Beorthwine
(Who really should know how wide the Bridge was, since he was wounded in the
battle there, but can not seem to remember. Maybe His Grace Sir Dag knows:
he was there too (on the wrong side). Anybody else?)
From: WISH at uriacc.uri.EDU (Peter Rose)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Bridges
Date: 8 Dec 1994 23:47:37 -0500
I've been doing some poking around, and, remembering someone complaining
a while back about how our 'bridge battles' weren't good reproductions
because (a) there were rarely three bridges side by each, and
(b) our bridges are highway width, and ought to be narrower,
I decided to make a few notes, along the way.
TG15H64 "A span of bridges" LoC 79-114295 :
Ponte d' Augusto at Narni
Built about 220BC, reconditioned about 27BC
500+ feet long, 110' above riverbed, 27' wide,
4 arches, from 53 to 106' spans. (!)
Pons Senatorius
~180 BC 26' Peirs, (Thus probably something like 20' wide)
The Bridge at Ceret
(forgot to write down the estimated year of construction)
149' span, 13' wide. This bridge was described as remarkably
narrow, to the point where it's structurally failing because of it.
(The author is critical because the structure is falling apart after
a mere 2000 years....)
NA2515 P253 "the four books of architecture" Andrea Palladio LoC 64-18862
(Palladio was born in 1508)
Julius Caesar's bridge over the Rhine was apparently about 40' wide,
A bridge over the river Cismone, (a wooden trestle bridge, 100' span)
if drawn to scale, is about 15' wide.
A bridge over the Bassano, 180' in 5 spans. Width 26 feet.
(This was an oak, covern bridge, with collonades on both sides.)
A bridge at Rimino, in Flaminio, about 25' wide
A bridge at Vicenza, over Bacchiglione: about 25' wide
So anyway; after a superficial pass at the subject, it looks like
a 200' long bridge about 25' wide would be reasonable for a major bridge.
--Azelin
From: sclark at epas.utoronto.ca (Susan Carroll-Clark)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: London Bridge
Date: 21 Feb 1996 12:47:52 -0500
Organization: University of Toronto -- EPAS
Over on alt.folklore.urban, where I occasionally post, the topic of nursery
rhymes pops up frequently--usually people insisting that "Ring around the
rosie" refers to the plague. (It in all likelyhood does not, and can only
be dated as far back as 1881 in any written source, while other rhymes with
documentable historic origins can be found in written sources much
further back). London Bridge was one of those. Apparently, in the 18th/
19th century, the Bridge was indeed "falling down"-- according to M.C. Borer's
_The City of London_ (p.239), by the middle of the 18th century, most of
the houses on the bridge were delapidated, and in 1757 they were demolished.
The bridge itself was replaced in 1831; the old bridge had lasted nearly
700 years (being finished in 1131), surviving the Great Fire in 1666.
This bridge in turn was rebuilt in 1968 (and apparently some people in
Arizona bought the old one and moved it there, thinking they were getting
the Tower Bridge, which many people think of as "London Bridge".)
Nicolaa de Bracton
sclark at epas.utoronto.ca
From: powers at woodstock.cis.ohio-state.edu (william thomas powers)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Sources for period bridges?
Date: 8 Sep 1997 22:37:33 -0400
Organization: The Ohio State University, Department of Computer and Information Science
>I am seeking sources with pictures/drawings of small stream crossing
>bridges as would have been found in Europe from 1400 - 1600 or so.
>Does anyone know if any such sources exist? Any architecture history
>buffs with any ideas? I am attempting to re-create one for a garden
>styled in that period.
The Garden of Nature, Miniature from Le Livre Des Echecz Amoureux
Et Des Echecz D'Amour, 15th century, folio 198 verso MS Fr. 143
Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris
Has a bridge in a garden over a small stream: it is a large heavy plank
with a handrail.
wilelm of the eclectic bookshelf
<the end>