To Learn More. There were three main aqueduct designs including tunnels, siphons and bridges as shown in Figure A as well as cisterns to store the water. Each design required different construction techniques. Structural engineering, materials engineering and water resource engineering were all implemented in the construction of aqueducts even though they did not exist at the time. For underground aqueducts, the construction of aqueducts began with tunneling and stone breaking.
Most aqueducts were masonry channels, so a lot of stone work was required in the construction. Workers would simultaneously work at multiple points along the aqueduct digging shafts from the surface to the aqueduct every 20 yards. Shafts were important to allow air in the aqueduct and for cleaning and repairs.
Once a channel had been tunneled out, librators present day engineers would use a chorobate, a tool used to determine the gradient, to check that the slope in the channel was accurate. The city was adorned with lush gardens and dramatic fountains. Its citizens took steaming public baths and enjoyed running water delivered to their homes — and sewage carried away.
None of this would have been possible without the 11 Roman aqueducts that supplied water to the capital from the surrounding countryside. The Roman aqueducts were a crowning technological achievement of the ancient world. The Assyrians, Greeks, Egyptians and more had all used aqueducts to supply dry, thirsty cities. But the aqueducts of ancient Rome stand out thanks to their grand scale and breathtaking architecture, which often used elevated bridges to pass water across valleys and over urban areas.
In fact, some carry water even now, some 2, years later. Aqueducts route water over long distances using gravity alone. For the concept to work, though, it needs to be built with staggering precision.
Some Roman aqueducts slope just a foot or two per mile, according to the U. Geological Survey. And while their stunning, arched stone architecture may have made aqueducts famous, the vast majority of Roman aqueducts were actually built underground. And as its military spread across the globe, Roman culture often replaced local traditions with its language, alphabet, calendar and technology.
By the time the Goths invaded in A. The Goths finished the system off, destroying all the remaining aqueducts. But during the period of the European Renaissance, Rome started to rebuild the aqueducts to supply water to all the new fountains in the city. By the s, Rome had reconstructed eight aqueducts, which stand to this day [source: Antiquities ].
At its height, Rome's system of aqueducts supplied each member of the populace with more than gallons 1, liters of water per day.
That's more than many modern water systems can deliver [source: InfoRoma]. In Los Angeles, like in Rome, the event that precipitated the construction of the first aqueduct was rapid growth. In the early s, the population exploded so quickly, that the local water supply could no longer meet demand.
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