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The Ponte Vecchio (pronounced ['p?nte 'v?kkio]) (Italian for Old Bridge)[2] is a Medieval bridge over the Arno River, in Florence, Italy, noted for still having shops built along it, as was once common. Butchers initially occupied the shops; the present tenants are jewelers, art dealers and souvenir sellers. It has been described as Europe's oldest wholly-stone, closed-spandrel segmental arch bridge,[2] but there are far older segmental arch bridges such as Alconétar Bridge. The bridge spans the Arno at its narrowest point[3] where it is believed that a bridge was first built in Roman times,[4] when the via Cassia crossed the river at this point.[5] The Roman piers were of stone, the superstructure of wood. The bridge first appears in a document of 996.[6] After being destroyed by a flood in 1117 it was reconstructed in stone but swept away again in 1333[4] save two of its central piers, as noted by Giovanni Villani in his Nuova Cronica.[7] It was rebuilt in 1345,[8] Giorgio Vasari recorded the tradition in his day, that attributed its design to Taddeo Gaddi,[9] besides Giotto 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.[10] Sheltered in a little loggia at the central opening of the bridge is a weathered dedication stone, which once read Nel trentatrè dopo il mille-trecento, il ponte cadde, per diluvio dell' acque poi dieci anni, come al Comun piacque, rifatto fu con questo adornamento[11] The bridge consists of three segmental arches the main arch has a span of 30 meters (98 ft) the two side arches each span 27 meters (88 ft). The rise of the arches is between 3.5 and 4.4 meters (11½ to 14½ feet), and the span-to-rise ratio 51.[1] It has always hosted shops and merchants who displayed their goods on tables before their premises, after authorization of the Bargello (a sort of a lord mayor, a magistrate and a police authority). The back shops (retrobotteghe) that may be seen from upriver, were added in the seventeenth century.[12]
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