The visible part
by Charlotte Balle, Fanny Gaspar & Sarah Kremer

In order to take the water from the spring of 'Les Bouillons' to Metz, a bridge had to be build across the river Moselle.

The huge 1.1 km-long bridge is difficult to imagine. It had about 110 arches and the highest ones were about 32 m high. The slant was at least twice as steep as it was along the rest of the aqueduc.

The structure started in Ars sur Moselle with a basin intended to collect the sand in the water.

The bridge carried two pipes. Several hypotheses were put forward to account for this feature:

• one of the pipes could be cleaned or repaired without stopping water supply
• water pressure could be lowered and therefore the strain on low walls could be reduced
• winter frost could be avoided by concentrating the flow in one pipe only.

When arriving in Jouy, the water was sent to Divodurum through another basin.