Florentines construct the Ponte Vecchio, a stone…

Florentines construct the Ponte Vecchio, a stone closed-spandrel segmental arch bridge, around to bridge the Arno River.

The bridge spans the Arno at its narrowest point where it is believed that a bridge was first built in Roman times, when the via Cassia crossed the river at this point.

The Roman piers were of stone, the superstructure of wood.

The bridge first appears in a document of 996.

After being destroyed by a flood in 1117 it was reconstructed in stone but swept away again in 1333 save two of its central piers, as noted by Giovanni Villani in his Nuova Cronica.

It is rebuilt in 1345: Giorgio Vasari will record the tradition in his day that attributes its design to Taddeo Gaddi, who, besides Giotto, will be one of the few artistic names of the trecento still recalled two hundred years later.

Modern historians present Neri di Fioravanti as a possible candidate.