This results in the length of these cables exceeding 2,200 m (2,400 yd). Volcanic Eruption from Mount Thera. In addition, the anchorage is not safe: the long ropes cannot prevent the ships from swinging and colliding, in particular when eddies add to the confusion and long ropes get entangled. Herodotus relates in his Histories that the Second Persian invasion of Greece already intended by Darius I was carefully prepared by his son Xerxes I. Alexander the Great is said to have crossed the Oxus by rafts made of his soldiers’ tents of hide stuffed with straw. Darius threw similar bridges across the Bosphorus and the Danube in his war against the Scythians, and the Ten Thou sand employed a bridge of boats to cross the river Tigris in their retreat from Persia. Pontoon bridges placed by Union forces across the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg in December 1862. The current is running at more than 2 kn, but there are large eddies around Nara Point.[16]. Anchors were lowered at either end of the boats to keep them in place and cables, alternatively made of white flax and papyrus, were stretched from shore to shore to hold the boats together and were tightened by large winches. A canal crossing the Athos peninsula was constructed. Abydos, the town mentioned by Herodotus, was north of Çanakkale on the Asiatic shore near Nara Burnu (formerly Nagara) (40°11′47″N 26°24′52″E / 40.19639°N 26.41444°E / 40.19639; 26.41444). Hoyer, p. 406, with reference to pontoon bridges of some 300 m across the Rhine or the Danube, apart from the necessity to use windlasses with enormous drums, Hoyer does not even imagine that anything less than 20 - 25 cm could be used, however, for larger gaps, The load assumptions being imprecise, the marginal loads of the brushwood and of the screens, but also the weight of the cables of some 800 kg per ship can be disregarded, http://classics.mit.edu/Aeschylus/persians.html, http://www.parstimes.com/history/herodotus/persian_wars/polymnia.html, Hammond, Nicholas G. L. (1996). Furthermore, large pontoonbridges appear to roll more distinctly than narrow ones and the horses, nervous from the outset, get even more frightened. if the ships' tension on the anchor ropes and on the cables is exactly equal, but in practice, it is not possible to tune them to such a degree, especially not under the influence of changing winds, currents, eddies and undercurrents. 239-40), in about 513 Darius crossed the Bosporus into Europe (Shahbazi, 1982, pp. and it seems that part of it was removed for the passage of Darius' flagship (iv 85.1). At Abydos, the distance between the shores is some 2,000 m.[25] Yet, the bridges would have been longer. [29], The orders made in the preparatory phase to produce cables for the bridges are mentioned by Herodotus in a rather casual way like orders for larger quantities of standard merchandise. It also does not matter whether it was sufficient to do the mooring by using just one rope at the bow and at the stern. Bollards of several meters in diameter would have been necessary in order to fasten these cables without breaking them. If the beam of a penteconter is taken to be 4 m (13 ft),[22] the bridge consisting of 314 ships spread across 2,200 m would show gaps of some 3 m (9.8 ft), if the openings made by triremes are disregarded. If a number of ropes were necessary they would have been placed close to each other paying attention to tensions on these ropes being equal. Egyptians also helped Xerxes to build another pontoon bridge, this one a little farther south than Darius’s; it stretched across the Hellespont and was held together by Egyptian flax ropes. - Couch, Darius Nash--Military service ... and the Pontoon bridge, is taken some two miles above Harpers Ferry, the Balt. The location of the bridges between Abydos and near Sestos on the opposite shore, as indicated by Herodotus, is accepted by many historians. Hoyer (p.390) recommends for the sake of stability that gaps should not exceed 6 m even if strong and thick boards are used. Fol and Hammond, pp. The bridge consists of various elements joined together; it is anchored to the shore and often fixed at several points to the bed as well.. Darius was the fourth king of the Achaemenid empire, but not directly descended from the founder Cyrus II (~600–530 BCE). [42] In certain densely forested parts of the US and of Canada, however, wooden roads have been covered by a layer of earth to protect the wood from deteriorating, which appears to have provided some comfort for the horses and carriages. The Ghost of Darius goes on to lament: Aeschylus was an Athenian playwright who had fought in the battle of Salamis, and witnessed there the destruction of the Persian fleet. The weight of a square meter is made up of 50 kg of logs and 360 kg of earth[44] adding up to 410 kg[45] As a result, each ship had to carry 25.2 m2 x 410 kg/m2 = 10,332 kg plus the weight of 4 x 7 = 28 Persons with luggage adding up to 2,520 kg, thus a total weight of some 13 tonnes which appears to be a reasonable load for the ships of that time. The lowest oar ports of a trireme were about 30 cm above the waterline and were normally fitted with leather sleeves,[18] an aspect which does not really qualify them as a bridge carrier. After Herodotus hardly indicated the location of the pontoon bridge across the Bosphorusbuilt some 30 years earlier by Xerxes' father Darius I, but did not provide any specific information about that bridge, the wealth of details given for the bridges across the Hellespont is astonishing and, upon cursory reading, seems to provide a clear picture. Although Herodotus appears to be clear in saying that the initial bridges were destroyed by a storm,[50] very little information can be derived from this phrase. This would have been a better basis for the road and would not have had any bad influence on the ropes. Linear A. Minoan system of writing. Herodotus' narrative should, perhaps, not be taken as … This would have given them the appearance of one extremely thick and heavy cable as described in the Histories. Ships in the center of the strait would thus have had to use anchor ropes with a length of several hundred meters each. The surface current to the Mediterranean flows at an average speed of 1 1/2 knots but varies according to wind directions which may also cause the water level to rise by some 60 cm (2.0 ft). [51] The initial placement of the wooden logs and the earth cover must initially have taken several days. The decking may be temporary or permanent, and constructed out of wood, modular metal, o… [3] Xerxes was enraged and had those responsible for building the bridges beheaded. Last, but not least, it seems to be impossible to find the right points for dropping the anchors so that their long lines would hold the ships properly lined up across the strait. [14] Çanakkale was built during the early Ottoman Empire on the alluvial gravel fan deposited by a river, in winter often a torrent,[15] descending from the nearby mountains (and recently tamed by the Atikhisar dam). Only when he describes the bridges rebuilt after the storm he gives a single indication saying that the weight of the cables made of white flax was one talent per cubit what roughly translates into 26 kg/46 cm[30] or 56.5 kg per meter. [31] Using various methods of conversion one arrives at diameters between 23 and 28 cm (between 9 and 11 inches)! The crossing of the Hellespont took seven days and nights, the army using the northeasterly bridge and the huge crowd of attendants and baggage animals the southwesterly bridge. 360 ships were used to construct the northeasterly bridge and 314 ships were used for the southwesterly bridge. When the Persian king, Darius, tried to invade Skythia (Scythia), Aristagoras and other allies were left at the Ister (Danube River) to guard the pontoon bridge which had granted Darius’ army entry into Europe and assured his return to Asia Minor. She goes to the grave of Darius, her late husband and the father of Xerxes. If one adheres to the ships being anchored as described by Herodotus, one has to take into account that each bridge together with the space required for the anchor ropes would have occupied a strip up to 900 m wide. Therefore, replacement deliveries of ships, cables, ropes and logs would have taken at least some months. Apparently, this is accepted by all historians. [46] Only one such screen on the bridge of 2,200 m would thus have had an area of some 6,000 m2. [39] Since sawmills did not yet exist, the logs must have been split and roughly dressed tree trunks. If such ropes never had been produced, it is more than unlikely that the Persian general staff would have relied on a totally unknown method of production to be executed on swaying ships to build bridges of vital importance for the whole campaign, in particular since everybody involved was aware that any failure could result in his being beheaded. One may question whether at that time it would have been possible to manufacture such huge amounts within a relatively short time. Having first sent a naval reconnaissance mission to explore shores of the Black Sea (cf. 232-35), marching over a pontoon bridge built by his Samian engineer, Mandrocles. Hammond (p. 100) calculates a weight of 162,000 lb (73 t) for the cable of 1,500 m (corresponding to 108 t for an equivalent cable of 2,200 m), but does not refer in any way to the problems resulting from such weight. On top, the earth would have accumulated in the center of the sags and thus increased the local load on the ropes. The city maintained independence as a city-state until it was annexed by Darius I in 512 BC into the Persian Empire, who saw the site as the optimal location to construct a pontoon bridge crossing into Europe as Byzantium was situated at the narrowest point … Having first sent a naval reconnaissance mission to explore shores of the Black Sea (cf. [47] Pontoon bridges of the last centuries have shown that it is entirely sufficient to have simple guardrails made of wooden lattices or ropes in order to keep the horses on the bridge.[48]. [6] Three openings were provided for the passage of small boats. [51], Width of the bridges respective to the roads. The presently narrowest part at Çanakkale appears to be beyond all question. The Greeks liked to make out that this 'Scythian' campaign was a fiasco, but it presumably achieved what it set out to do. Therefore, there appears no alternative but to assume that the ships were held in place by the long cables only, and that anchors were used only temporarily to hold ships in shoal waters until they were attached to the cables. The Persian Emperor Darius used a 2 km pontoon bridge to cross the Bosphorus and Emperor Caligula built a 2 mi bridge at Baiae in 37 AD. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. ATOSSA: Ev'n so, some god assisting his design. Minos. Fol and Hammond, pp. Ancient king of Crete. Barker, p. 30; Hammond, p. 93 in the little chart, Barker (p. 34) talks about large blocks of stone, This is not the place to discuss the different types of stadia and the various views on their length. 2500 years ago, this alluvial fan may not have protruded into the strait as it does today. and Ohio R.R. After Herodotus hardly indicated the location of the pontoon bridge across the Bosphorus built some 30 years earlier by Xerxes' father Darius I, but did not provide any specific information about that bridge, the wealth of details given for the bridges across the Hellespont is astonishing and, upon cursory reading, seems to provide a clear picture. The Persian Emperor Darius used a 2-kilometre (1.2 mi) pontoon bridge to cross the Bosphorus and Emperor Caligula built a 2-mile (3.2 km) bridge at Baiae in 37 AD. GHOST OF DARIUS: What! ATOSSA: From shore to shore he bridged the Hellespont. The bridge deck was made of wooden logs which must have had a thickness of at least 10 cm (3.9 in). But then, the whole load has to be borne by either the ropes or the cables, without the other (slack) one contributing anything to the horizontal load bearing capacity of the installation. "The construction of Xerxes' bridge over the Hellespont", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Xerxes%27_Pontoon_Bridges&oldid=989827242, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 21 November 2020, at 07:32. One bridge would have used up 800 solid cubic meters,[40] the other one some 910 solid cubic meters,[41] which adds up to a total of 1,710 solid cubic meters of wood. Corrections? Wooden planks were laid across the cables, and brushwood and soil used to cover the planks and form a dirt roadway. Herodotus does not give any indication of the width of the bridges or of the roads passing over them. 21 Satrapies. There is a further technical point: The addition of anchors and of cables reaching from shore to shore provides added holding power to the ships only in theory, i.e. [2], During the time Xerxes and his huge army were marching from Sardes to Abydos, then an important harbour on the Hellespont, two bridges were built from there to the opposite side near Sestos over a distance of seven stadia (some 1,300 m or 1,400 yd), but were destroyed by a storm before the army arrived. The strategic importance of pontoon bridges continued into the second half of the 20th Century, too. It is left to speculation whether and to what extent ships, cables, ropes and logs were recovered, saved, repaired and reused. That alone is sufficient to discard the occasional opinion that the ropes had been produced and delivered in manageable lengths and had been spliced together on the spot.[35]. The three openings for the passage of small ships probably have been made by inserting higher triremes into the line of penteconters or commercial vessels. Darius would take the empire to its greatest extent, but before he could accomplish that, he needed to establish his connection to the family. See also Pontoon bridge on Wikipedia, and the disclaimer. In order to avoid entangling, these ropes (like the parallel wires in the main cables of modern suspension bridges) might have been wrapped by some sort of sheets or ropes. They were used during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and during the Balkans War of the 1990s. Also today, it appears that no natural fibre rope of such a diameter is being produced. Question: Will the bridge be the focal point? Ring in the new year with a Britannica Membership - Now 30% off. The U.S. Army in the 19th century experimented with pneumatic rubber pontoons and discarded them as less serviceable than wood or metal but returned to their use in an improved form serviced by air compressors during World War II. According to Herodotus, the ropes were not only used as mooring ropes but also supported the wooden logs forming the bridge deck which is a rather unusual method of construction. One assumes the width of Greek roads to have measured between 2.7 and 3.6 m (8.9 and 11.8 ft)[28] Thus, the width of the bridge can be taken as 3.6 m, allowing four soldiers abreast or two horsemen side by side. It seems impossible to tighten cables of such enormous lengths by windlasses as described by Herodotus.[38]. Hammonds (p.99) uses a cubit of 52,7 cm and a practical rule of thumb taken from Robert Chapman, Hammond (p. 101) describes the mooring by way of an. [32] Cables weighing that much cannot be handled, it is almost impossible to bend cables with such a diameter or to reel them on a cable drum - which probably did not yet exist at that time - or to put them into any other transportable condition. Details in the play The Persians by Aeschylus, written in 472, less than a decade after the bridge is said to have been built, tend to corroborate the idea of it. A Ionian Greek in his army, Coes of Mytilene, objects to this and suggests not to cut off a possible line of retreat. Perhaps it was meant to keep the earth on the bridge. After crossing the Hellespont on a pontoon bridge, the Persian army fought the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC. Again, the conversion is made without regard to the unit differing locally and to the various views of historians. This may lead to the assumption that the bridges told to have been destroyed by a storm were used by Herodotus only as a pretext for his vivid description in all details of an outburst of rage of the great king Xerxes and even to quote his furious speech in full. The wood has been cut off Maryland heights and the forts and military roads are distinguishable on its sides. That meant leading his army of 600,000 men across the Bosporus Strait. Even if one assumes that no replacement deliveries were necessary and that all items could have been repaired, those repairs must have taken several days. But when more than half of this rather motley assemblage had passed, the truly Persian troops started to appear. The spirit of Darius rises and she tells him of their son's misadventure, and what preceded it. Ships carrying a bridge should all have the same height in order to provide a flat bridge deck and thus, one may assume that the bridge consisted only of penteconters (if not of commercial ships) and that the larger and higher triremes were only used on either side of the passageways. [10] Herodotus' narrative should, perhaps, not be taken as a bridge engineer's sober technical report but rather as a vivid illustration of the grandeur of the Persian king which would make the Greek victories appear even more outstanding.[11]. The preparation of the bridges lasted months, if not years. A pontoon bridge was constructed in 480 bc by Persian engineers to transport Xerxes’ invading army across the Hellespont (Dardanelles). 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