(8 things people get wrong about ancient Rome.) While the triumphal arches of the republican era were short-lived wooden structures, the commemorative arches of the empire, made from stone and ...

light blue in model B); and one with a diamond-shaped keystone (the Gothic arch, model C). Flying buttresses act the same way ancient Roman columns did, countering the horizontal force of the arch.

However, it was the Romans who fully embraced and refined the arch, turning it into a fundamental element of their engineering: by improving materials — especially through the development of concrete ...

Finished in 315 C.E., the Arch of Constantine is one of Rome’s three surviving ancient triumphal arches, each erected to honor a person or event. This arch commemorates Constantine I’s 312 ...

Ancient masters of engineering ... Arches: Bridges could have two or—less commonly—as many as three tiers of arches. Roman engineers opted for narrow arches, which provided maximum strength.

Situated in the Rhone valley, the ancient theatre of Orange, with its 103-m-long facade, is one of the best preserved of all the great Roman theatres. Built between A.D. 10 and 25, the Roman arch is ...

We asked Aicher, author of "Guide to the Aqueducts of Ancient Rome," about the Romans' sophisticated ... When you build arches, it's like advertising to the enemy: Here is our aqueduct.

as workers on site with cranes gather up fragments and secure broken areas of the arch after lightning struck it during a storm Tuesday, Sept. 3, loosening fragments from the ancient Roman structure.