I. Decide whether the following statements are true or false according to the text:

1. The first bridges were upheld by arches, such as flat stones or tree trunks laid across a stream.

2. Materials to construct first bridges were available and ample.

3. Clapper bridges were built with long slabs of stone and with rocks or blocklike piles of stones.

4. Bridge construction work in the Roman Empire was done by slaves, soldiers, or natives, so labour costs were few.

5. Circular arch form used by the Romans served to make spans much longer than stone beams.

6. The Romans developed the cofferdam allowing piers to be built on rocks.

7. Crisscrossing of the logs helped to reach adjacent piers.

8. Old boats filled with stones were used as cofferdam-like foundations.

II. Answer the following questions:

1. What are the main types of bridges in the ancient world?

2. What was the principle of a simple beam bridge?

3. What is a clapper bridge?

4. The Romans developed bridge construction. In what way?

5. What was the purpose of the cofferdam? The construction of what type of bridges requires the cofferdam?

6. What is the basic design of a cantilever bridge in the Ancient Asia?

III. Define the type of the bridge:

a) beam a) beam a) beam

b) cantilever b) cantilever b) cantilever

c) arch c) arch c) arch

LANGUAGE FOCUS

IV. Match the meanings of these terms with their definition:

1. beam 2. slab 3. crossing 4. pier 5. cofferdam 6. adjacent 7. design

1. flat thick esp. rectangular piece of solid material, esp. stone 2. place where things cross. 3. long sturdy piece of squared timber or metal 4. watertight enclosure pumped dry to permit work below the waterline, e.g. building bridges 5. a preliminary plan or sketch for making something 6. a support of an arch or of the span of a bridge 7. lying near; adjoining

V. Fill in the correct prepositions:

for, than, with, of, into, across, of, in, by, on, through, in, into

To be supported … beams, to be poured … the water, to be laid … a stream, to be constructed … long slabs … stone, to rise … height, to be hung … suspension … single-file crossing, to be … more permanence … wood, to pass … the piers, to be built … rock, to be driven … the riverbed

VI. Read the text and say what following words are key ones in each part consequently:

1. Beam, trunk, stones, channels, ropes, suspension, clapper bridges, few labour costs, single-file crossing

2. Military campaigns, pozzolana, circular arch form, strong piers, bridges of more permanence, the cofferdam, engineers and skilled workmen, guilds

3. Wooden can­tilever bridges, old boats filled with stones, iron bridges, layers of logs, less resistance to floods, masonry-arch bridge, failure

VII. Using the key words describe three ancient types of bridges.

VIII. Complete the following table:

№	The period and the country	Type of the bridge	Materials used	Difficulties
1.		Beam bridge
2.			stones
3.	Ancient Asia

Text 4: The Middle Ages and The Renaissance

Lead-in

1. What kinds of bridges were in the Ancient World?

2. What are the purposes of bridges in the Middle Ages? Were they still the same?

3. What countries in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance were first to develop bridge building?

After the fall of the Roman Empire, progress in European bridge building slowed considerably until the Renaissance. Fine bridges sporadically appeared, however. Medieval bridges are particularly noted for the ogival, or pointed arch. With the pointed arch the ten­dency to sag at the crown is less dangerous, and there is less horizontal thrust at the abutments. Medieval bridges served many purposes. Chapels and shops were commonly built on them, and many were fortified with towers and ramparts. Some featured a drawbridge, a medieval innovation. The most famous bridge of that age was Old London Bridge, begun in the late 12th century under the direction of a priest, Peter of Colechurch, and completed in 1209, four years after his death. London Bridge was designed to have 19 pointed arches, each with a 24-foot span and resting on piers 20 feet wide. There were obstructions encountered in building the cofferdams, however, so that the arch spans eventually varied from 15 to 34 feet. The uneven quality of construction resulted in a frequent need for repair, but the bridge held a large jumble of houses and shops and survived more than 600 years before being replaced. A more elegant bridge of the period was the Saint-Benezet Bridge at Avignon, Fr. Begun in 1177, part of it still stands today. Another medieval bridge of note is Monnow Bridge in Wales, which featured three separate ribs of stone under the arches. Rib construction reduced the quantity of material needed for the rest of the arch and lightened the load on the foundations.

During the Renaissance, the Italian architect Andrea Palladio took the principle of the truss, which previously had been used for roof supports, and designed several successful wooden bridges with spans up to 100 feet. Longer bridges, however, were still made of stone. Another Italian designer, Bartolommeo Ammannati, adapted the medieval ogival arch by concealing the angle at the crown and by starting the curves of the arches vertically in their springings from the piers. This elliptical shape of arch, in which the rise-to-span ratio was as low as 1:7, became known as basket-handled and has been adopted widely since. Ammannati's elegant Santa Trinita Bridge (1569) in Florence, with two elliptical arches, carried pedestrians and later automobiles until it was destroyed during World War II; it was afterward rebuilt with many of the original materials recovered from the riverbed. Yet another Italian, Antonio da Ponte, designed the Rialto Bridge (1591) in Venice, an ornate arch made of two segments with a span of 89 feet and a rise of 21 feet. Antonio overcame the problem of soft, wet soil by having 6,000 timber piles driven straight down under each of the two abutments, upon which the masonry was placed in such a way that the bed joints of the stones were perpendicular to the line of thrust of the arch. This innovation of angling stone or concrete to the line of thrust has been continued into the present.

COMPREHENSION CHECK