Ponte del Risorgimento

41°55′07″N 12°28′14″E

Ponte del Risorgimento
Ponte del Risorgimento, Rome
Coordinates	41°55′07″N 12°28′14″E
Crosses	River Tiber
Locale	Rome, Flaminio and Della Vittoria Quarters, Italy
Characteristics
Material	Reinforced concrete
Total length	159.10 m (522.0 ft)
Width	20.95 m (68.7 ft)
Longest span	100.00 m (328.1 ft)
History
Designer	Giovanni Antonio Porcheddu
Construction start	1909
Construction end	1911
Opened	April 17, 1911
Location

Details of the bulwarks with the inscriptions by the designer

Ponte del Risorgimento (or briefly Ponte Risorgimento) is a bridge that links Piazzale delle Belle Arti to Piazza Monte Grappa in Rome (Italy), in the Flaminio and Della Vittoria quarters.^[1]

History and description

The bridge links the area of Lungotevere delle Armi to Piazzale delle Belle Arti.^[2]

The works for the building began in 1909 and were completed two years later. The bridge was designed and built by Giovanni Antonio Porcheddu,^[3] with the cooperation of the engineers Giaj and Parvopassu, on the occasion of the exhibition for celebrating the 50th anniversary of Italian unification. It is the first bridge in Rome made in reinforced concrete, since its creator, at that time, was the only Italian dealer of the patent of the Belgian François Hennebique.

The day of the inauguration (April 17, 1911), the spectators doubted that the structure, after the removal of the supporting scaffoldings, wouldn't have stood up; on the contrary, Porcheddu was so sure about the effectiveness and reliability of the new technique that he wanted to attend the demolition of the scaffolding on a little boat just below the arch of the bridge, together with his two youngest kids, Giuseppe and Ambrogia.^[4] During the ceremony, King Victor Emmanuel III offered Porcheddu the epithet "King of reinforced concrete".^[3]

In the middle of the bridge, on both bulwarks, are two inscriptions:

INAVGVRATO L'11 MAGGIO DEL 1911

NEL CINQVANTENARIO DELLA PROCLAMAZIONE

DI ROMA CAPITALE D'ITALIA

DALL'AMMINISTRAZIONE POPOLARE CITTADINA

AL RISORGIMENTO ITALIANO

(Inaugurated on May 11, 1911

in the fiftieth anniversary of the proclamation

of Rome as Capital of Italy

by the popular city administration

in memory of Italian Risorgimento)

on one side, and

PONTE IN CEMENTO ARMATO

AD VNICA ARCATA DI 100 M. DI CORDA

CON FRECCIA DI 10 M.

COSTRVITO

CON SISTEMA HENNEBIQUE

DALLA SOCIETA PORCHEDDU ING.G.A

(Reinforced concrete bridge

with a 100-meters-chord single arch

and a 10-meters arch rise

built

with the Hennebique system

by the company Porcheddu Ing. G.A)

on the other.^[5]