Roman Architecture
The architectural style of Rome was firmly rooted in the Hellenistic traditions. However, Roman culture is probably more accurately reflected in the development of new engineering skills and secular monuments. The style and construction progress of Roman architecture was different from other styles, even though the origin of their ideas came from the Greek architecture. The Romans were first to use math seriously for the arches, bridges, aqueducts, roof, and mainly the dome. The Romans took the ideas of architecture from other countries and adjusted it, so there were no support beams needed and the buildings were able to stand for thousands of years without really needing restoring. The modern nineteenth century buildings were not able to last for even 100 years without being restored, unlike the Roman's architecture which stood for thousands of years afterwards. The arched structure is one reason that the Roman's bridges were advanced for their time. The Romans were advanced in their ways of making a permanent bridge. First, they made a boat bridge which consisted of boats lain side by side. From the boat bridge, work began on the permanent bridge. It was to be made of wood and supported on stone towers called piers
The Romans tried arches to split the weight instead of the Greek way of using the columns. For major or busy bridges sometimes stone went in place of wood. There were three kinds of roofs; dome, traditional, and vaulted. This box was floated into position and then weighted down until it sank. Surveyors made an imaginary line with measuring sticks and a chorobate, a leveling instrument like the level used today, to make a straight line for a profile map. With its development, the Romans bypass the earlier building concepts of vertical and horizontal, support and load. Every twenty yards vertical shafts were sunk from the surface of the hill to the level of the proposed aqueduct. The temporary frame of the arch was wooden, the brick or cement were put on top of the frame and removed when the mortar or cement dried. The Romans didn't need the columns, but they put the columns in for looks. When the pumping was finished, each pier stood on a foundation of tar covered piles and was constructed of carefully cut stones on the inside. The arches were usually built of brick, but in the later years of Rome, the arches were built of cement. During the construction, the vousoirs were supported by a temporary wooden frame until the keystone was inserted. The Romans were also known for their roof structure which, unlike the Greek structures, needed no support columns. Sometimes a route of an aqueduct required that a short tunnel be dug through a hill.
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