1. The Pons Ælius, called then, as now, the Ponte Sant’ Angelo, built by Ælius Hadrianus, who reigned from A.D. 117 to 138, and who erected his bridge as a passage over the Tiber to his own mausoleum, which forms the groundwork of the present castle of St. Angelo. An earlier bridge connected the Vatican and its neighbourhood with that part of the city which Caligula and Nero had beautified with gardens; and remains of it still exist near S. Spirito. The date of its disappearance I do not know, but in the days of Procopius, the sixth century of the Christian era, the Pons Ælius was the only communication between the city and the Vatican district. Either legend or truth says that the Ælius had a bronze cover upheld by forty-two pillars. If this gleaming roof ever existed (and writers should be afraid of pretty details in ancient history), it must have been damaged very much when the parapets were broken down in the fifteenth century. This accident was caused by a great crowd that lost control of itself on the bridge, when thronging to St. Peter’s to receive the Pope’s benediction. At last the parapets gave way, and ninety-two persons were either drowned or crushed to death. Long afterwards, as we know, Giovanni L. Bernini (1598-1680) designed balustrades of iron and stone, but dwarfed them with ten huge statues commissioned by Pope Clement IX (p. 324). The figures of St. Peter and St. Paul at the city entrance were put up by Clement VII. The bridge itself--or himself, shall we say?--has a technical inspiration akin to that of the Pons Palatinus; but there is less ornament, and above the cutwaters, instead of tall niches, we find rectangular pillars with plain capitals, upon which Bernini erected pedestals for his “breezy angels.” 2. The Pons Fabricius, connecting Rome on the city side with the Insula Tiberina. In very early times this island in the Tiber was united to each bankside by a bridge, and hence it was called _Inter Duos Pontes_. The present Pons Fabricius was either founded or restored by L. Fabricius, curator viarum in B.C. 62, as appears from the inscription on it, and from Dion Cassius. It is mentioned by Horace as a bridge very attractive to suicides:-- ... jussit sapientem pascere barbam Atque a Fabricio non tristem ponte reverti.