The Pont du Gard
At peak flow, the aqueduct delivered 40,000 cubic metres of water per day to Nîmes — enough to supply public fountains, bathhouses, private villas, and the civic displays of water that were essential to Roman urban identity. The
Construction
The bridge was built from locally quarried limestone, cut into blocks weighing up to six tonnes. The stones were fitted together without mortar, relying on precise cutting and the sheer mass of the structure for stability. Construction marks — numbers, letters, alignment lines — are still visible on many blocks, and modern archaeologists have used them to reconstruct the building process.
The lower tier has six arches with a maximum span of 24.5 metres. The second tier has eleven arches aligned with the first for structural continuity. The top tier — the actual water channel — has 35 smaller arches carrying the
The entire structure was built in approximately five years, using an estimated 800–1,000 workers. Scaffolding holes are visible in the piers, and the projecting stones (corbels) that supported the wooden centering for the arches were deliberately left in place — they remain visible today.
After the Romans
When the aqueduct fell out of use in the sixth century, the Pont du Gard survived because it was useful as a road bridge. In the medieval period, the second tier was narrowed to create a roadway — you can see the cut-back piers where stones were removed to allow carts to pass. This pragmatic reuse may have saved the bridge from being quarried for building stone, as happened to countless Roman structures across France.
In the eighteenth century, the States of Languedoc built a separate road bridge alongside the lower tier (designed by Henri Pitot in 1743–1747), which diverted traffic and preserved the Roman structure. This adjacent bridge remains in use today and provides the classic viewing angle of the Pont du Gard.
Practical Visitor Information
- Getting there: 25 km from Nîmes, 30 km from Avignon; by car via the D981. Limited bus service from Nîmes (bus B21); a car or bicycle is recommended
- Tickets: Parking €9 per vehicle (includes site access); museum €7 additional
- Hours: Bridge accessible year-round; museum and facilities 9:00–19:00 (summer) or 10:00–17:00 (winter)
- Swimming: The Gardon riverbed below the bridge is a hugely popular swimming spot in summer — bring a picnic and swim shoes
- Best time: Early morning for photographs (golden light on the stone); June or September to avoid August crowds
- Walking: The site includes 15 km of walking trails through the Mediterranean
on both banks
The Pont du Gard works on multiple levels — an engineering marvel and a Roman history lesson, but also a stunning natural setting. The combination of the golden stone, the turquoise Gardon, and the surrounding garrigue makes this one of the most photogenic sites in southern France.