Nijmegen: Bridge

At this place, near the modern railroad bridge across the river Waal, used to be the ancient Roman bridge, of which hardly anything survives, except for some wooden piles, the beams that were placed across them, and the metal frame (the "shoe") that protected the bottom of one of the piles. They were discovered in the 1980s. The bridge, situated between Noviomagus and the river port, was part of a road that connected the Nijmegen settlements to the sanctuaries at Elst and Fort Hercules on the Rhine. It is possible that in the river, more piles and big stones can be found, but investigation will be very difficult because the Waal is usually full of big ships.

It is possible that the piles belong to the bridge that was built in 70 by soldiers of the Second legion Adiutrix, which is mentioned by the Roman historian Tacitus (Annals, 5.20). He tells that in the final stages of the Batavian Revolt, when the Romans had already pushed back the rebels to their homeland and were preparing to invade it, the Batavians tried to destroy a bridge that was under construction at Batavodurum.