Pont d'El Kantara
Coordinates: 36 ° 22 ′ 9 ″ N , 6 ° 37 ′ 6 ″ E
| Pont d'El Kantara | ||
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| use | Road bridge | |
| Crossing of | Rhumel | |
| place | Constantine (Algeria) | |
| construction | Reinforced concrete - arch bridge | |
| overall length | 128 m | |
| width | approx. 14 m | |
| Number of openings | four | |
| Longest span | 56 m | |
| height | 125 m | |
| location | ||
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The Pont d'El Kantara spans the deep gorge of the Rhumel River in the city of Constantine in Algeria . The Pont d'El Kantara, built in the 1950s, is the fourth bridge to be built at this point. A bridge from Roman times that was destroyed in 1304 was followed by a structure made of four masonry arches under the Bey Salah Bey in 1792, which collapsed in 1857 after an infantry unit marched over it.
The new building, erected between 1861 and 1865, consisted of a cast-iron segment arch with a span of 56 m, which was supported on high stone pillars, which were connected to the streets with one or two brick round arches. The bridge was 128 meters long. Their carriageway ran at a height of 125 meters above the bottom of the gorge. A remnant of the old bridge remained deep beneath it and could be used by pedestrians.
The bridge 1883, photograph from Les Travaux Publics de la France
In 1952 the south-facing facade of the bridge arch collapsed into the gorge. The cast iron arch was then broken off and replaced by a four meter wider concrete structure. It consists of three double arched girders made of reinforced concrete with vertical supports that support the elevated deck.
The Pont d'El Kantara was the oldest of the five bridges now spanning the Rhumel Gorge in Constantine. Its name is a pleonasm : as long as it was the only passage, it was simply called El Kantara , i.e. the bridge , in Arabic . The name was then adopted in the French name.
In 2008 an Algerian postage stamp with the image of the bridge was issued.
Web links
- El Kantara Bridge on HighestBridges.com
- Pont El Kantara on skyscrapercity.com
- Pont d'El Kantara (1863) on Structurae
- Pont d'El Kantara (1952) on Structurae
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Pont El Kantara on Constantine en Objets (with pictures of the old bridge)
- ^ A b Jean Bayol: Les ponts de Constantine on Cercle algerianiste
- ^ Pont El Kantara on Constantine d'hier & d'aujourd'hui , Serge Gilard's private website; Retrieved March 2, 2013
- ^ Pont d'El Kantara in a stamp catalog, accessed on March 2, 2013