However despite being a marvel of engineering at its time it was a temporal bridge.
Pontoon bridge xerxes. This first pontoon bridge was used to allow the Persian army to cross the strait of Dardanelles in Turkey. Also during the digging of a canal across the isthmus of Mount Athos the laborers were driven with whips 722-24. It held during Xerxes campaign quite well which speaks of its quality.
The narrowest part of the Dardanelles is 1530 yards today and it was likely wider during Xerxes time. Verily King Xerxes will cross thee whether thou wilt or no. Hellespont aka Dardanelles is a narrow natural strait and internationally significant waterway in northwestern Turkey that.
If this had been a cabled bridge the cables would have been left in position. For thou art of a truth a treacherous and unsavoury river While the sea was thus punished by his orders he likewise commanded that the overseers of. HellespontXerxes Pontoon Bridges were constructed in 480 BC during the second Persian invasion of Greece upon the order of Xerxes I of Persia for the purpose of Xerxes army to traverse the Hellespont the present day Dardanelles from Asia into Thrace then also controlled by Persia in the European part of modern Turkey.
The best examples of pontoon bridges are those of Xerxes which were built across the Hellespont during the Persian invasion of Greece. The Hellespont known today as the Dardanelles is a strait connecting the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara in present-day Turkey. There are also strong currents there which would make constructing a pontoon bridge in the narrowest place practically impossible.
Did you know that when Xerxes tried to cross the Dardanelles straight to invade Greece in the 2nd Greco-Persian war he built a floating bridge which then collapsed because of sea currents. The earliest recorded use of a pontoon bridge was by Cyris the Great in 536bc using skin covered pontoons. Xerxes whipped the sea after his floating bridges where collapsed.
Persian engineers devised the method. Herodotus was interested in the material from which the cables for Xerxes bridges over the Strymon were made. Xerxes commanded his men to build a floating bridge but a violent storm subsequently destroyed their work.