Piranesi’s attention to the urban infrastructure related to water distribution and management includes views of bridges crossing the Tiber River. The bridge pictured in this print, however, is infamously broken. Considered Rome’s oldest stone bridge, the Pons Aemilius, also known colloquially as the “Ponte Rotto” or broken bridge, underwent several major restoration projects in the sixteenth century and again in the mid-nineteenth century before it was partially demolished to make space for a contemporary bridge in the 1890s. Piranesi’s print bears evidence of one of the sixteenth- century restorations in the form of the dragon carved into the middle arch of the bridge, the symbol of Pope Gregory XIII.
 
The perspective Piranesi adopts for this print—standing at river level on the bank of the Tiber looking up at the bridge—heightens the structure’s sublime and dramatic effects. The diminutive scale of the figures in gondolas further implies its monumental scale. Piranesi draws additional attention to its height and depth by placing two annotations (A and B) at the center the trio of arches, thus drawing the viewer’s attention to the aesthetic uniformity between the ancient and modern architecture. He positions these annotations in tension with the final annotation, “C,” in the foreground, which indicates the location where the bridge would have connected with the pier across the opposite bank. The diagonal pathway cut by the progression of the three annotations invites the viewer to bridge the gap to the distant riverbank, and even imagine the bridge continuing across the river in their mind’s eye. Piranesi combines the acts of reading and viewing in a way that invites the imaginary completion of a broken structure. 
 
With the depiction of people in gondolas under the bridge, Piranesi demonstrates the river’s related infrastructure, as he does throughout Le Antichità Romane. While other elements of the volume focus on the geographical placements of Rome’s infrastructure of aqueducts and bridges, especially the Map of the Aqueducts, the sunken perspective in this veduta is yet another way of inciting the viewer to consider the movement of the figures as they pass under the arches of the bridge, and the relationship between urban infrastructure and water, rather than focus on the bridge’s location within the city. (CBA)