Constantine's Bridge (Danube)
Constantine's Bridge (, "Konstantinov most"; ) was a Roman bridge over the Danube used to reconquer Dacia. It was completed in 328 AD and remained in use for four decades. It was officially opened on 5 July 328 AD in the presence of emperor Constantine the Great. With an overall length of , of which spanned the Danube's riverbed, Constantine's Bridge is considered the longest ancient river bridge and one of the longest of all time. Construction. It was a construction with masonry piers and wooden arch bridge and with wooden superstructure. It was constructed between  Sucidava (present-day Corabia, Olt County, Romania) and Oescus (modern Gigen, Pleven Province, Bulgaria), by Constantine the Great. The bridge was apparently used until the mid-4th century, the main reason for this assumption being that Valens had to cross the Danube using a bridge of boats at Constantiana Daphne during his campaign against the Goths in 367. While Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli attempted to locate the bridge in the 17th century and and Cezar Bolliac continued this search in the 19th century, the first real scientific discoveries were performed by Grigore Tocilescu and Pamfil Polonic in 1902. In 1934 Dumitru Tudor  published the first complete work regarding the bridge, and the last systematic approach on the north bank of the Danube was performed in 1968 by Octavian Toropu. Technical data. The length of the bridge was with a wooden deck with a width of at above the water. The bridge had two abutment piers at each end, serving as gates for the bridge.