The First Bridges

Before there were bridges, every river was a border.

In The First Bridges, Nathaniel Arkwright traces forty crossings - from fallen-tree spans and rope bridges to Roman arches, floating pontoons and Old London Bridge - and the builders, ferrymen, monks, merchants and armies who kept them standing. Each chapter follows one crossing and the world it opened: how stone and timber, faith and tolls, siege and pilgrimage turned a narrow span of wood or stone into a road, a market and a frontier.

Inside, readers will find:

• The fallen-tree crossings and ford paths that taught early peoples to read a river.

• Roman engineers who turned the arch into an empire-spanning system of roads and supply.

• Inca rope bridges - including Q'eswachaka - rebuilt each year by whole communities.

• Floating bridges, pontoon spans and the timber trestles that carried armies and trade.

• Old London Bridge, its houses, chapels and shops, and the city that grew around it.

• The tolls, guilds, pilgrim routes and sieges that made a bridge a place of power - and a target.

Written for readers who love history, engineering and the human stories behind great structures, The First Bridges is a journey across water, gorges and marshes - and across the ancient and medieval world itself.