Roman Arches

By:

Anh-Thu and Shakir

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How were they able to make it?

In their spare time, the Romans managed to invent cement, a mixture of lime, clay, and water. They constructed the rounded arch, commonly called the Roman arch, and perfected it into various forms.

The Roman arch contains "voussoirs”, or bricks. The "keystone" is the center voussoir that supports the other bricks. The push or thrust of the cemented voussoirs push outward and downward in the arch. A row of arches is called an "arcade.”

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Construction An arch requires all of its elements to hold it together, raising the

question of how an arch is constructed. One answer is to build a frame (historically, of wood) which exactly follows the form of the underside of the arch. This is known as a centre or centring. The voussoirs are laid on it until the arch is complete and self-supporting. For an arch higher than head height, scaffolding would in any case be required by the builders, so the scaffolding can be combined with the arch support. Occasionally arches would fall down when the frame was removed if construction or planning had been incorrect. (The A85 bridge at Dalmally, Scotland suffered this fate on its first attempt, in the 1940s). The interior and lower line or curve of an arch is known as the intrados.

Old arches sometimes need reinforcement due to decay of the keystones, known as bald arch.

The Romans used the arch shape in most of their public buildings. Triumphant arches were built to honor the great achievements of emperors and generals in Rome. Some of the arches included:

Arch of Titus

Arches of Constantine

Arch of Septimus Severus

Arch of Trajan

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How does it connect to our society?

We have buildings with arches in America.

We use them for designs on buildings.

Our bridges are examples of modern arches.

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Sources:

http://egghead.psu.edu/~ma_tapps/arch/roman.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arch

http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0210200/ancient_rome/arch.htm