It Was Raised In The Augustan Age,
By The Roman Colony Of Nismes, To Convey A Stream Of Water
Between Two Mountains, For The Use Of That City.
It stands over
the river Gardon, which is a beautiful pastoral stream, brawling
among rocks, which form a number of pretty natural cascades, and
overshadowed on each side with trees and shrubs, which greatly
add to the rural beauties of the scene.
It rises in the Cevennes,
and the sand of it produces gold, as we learn from Mr. Reaumur,
in his essay on this subject, inserted in the French Memoirs, for
the year 1718. If I lived at Nismes, or Avignon (which last city
is within four short leagues of it) I should take pleasure in
forming parties to come hither, in summer, to dine under one of
the arches of the Pont du Garde, on a cold collation.
This work consists of three bridges, or tire of arches, one above
another; the first of six, the second of eleven, and the third of
thirty-six. The height, comprehending the aqueduct on the top,
amounts to 174 feet three inches: the length between the two
mountains, which it unites, extends to 723. The order of
architecture is the Tuscan, but the symmetry of it is
inconceivable. By scooping the bases of the pilasters, of the
second tire of arches, they had made a passage for foot-travellers:
but though the antients far excelled us in beauty,
they certainly fell short of the moderns in point of conveniency.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 185 of 535
Words from 49621 to 49876
of 143308
