Ponte Rotto (Pons Aemilius), Rome (31. Rome. 1842. Ponte Rotto.)

Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey

1842 · Daguerreotype · Photographs

When Girault photographed the Ponte Rotto (Broken Bridge), the oldest stone bridge in Rome, only two of its original five arches remained standing, and locals used it as a fishing pier. Built over the Tiber River in the second century B.C., it had suffered serious damage from generations of flooding. At the end of the nineteenth century, one of the arches was demolished to make room for a new bridge, leaving the single arch that survives today.

Artist

Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey

Date

1842

Medium

Daguerreotype

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Purchase, Mr. and Mrs. John A. Moran Gift, in memory of Louise Chisholm Moran, Joyce F. Menschel Gift, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 2016 Benefit Fund, and Gift of Dr. Mortimer D. Sackler, Theresa Sackler and Family, 2016 (2016.605)