Bridges connected the world, spread cultures, fostered all kinds of relationships, but also facilitated wars… All these reasons and causes, as well as the fact that man, a naturally inquisitive being, wished to reach the opposite bank, led to the invention of the bridge.
Thus, at first hesitantly, using a log or stones, people crossed streams and small rivers for the very first time.
Giorgos Makris was born in 1929 in Phthiotis and studied in Athens, at Varvakeio High School and at the National Technical University of Athens, from which he graduated in 1952 (School of Surveying Engineering).
He worked professionally as a surveyor engineer, practicing in Greece and abroad.
Giorgos Makris served as a scientific associate at the Department of Geodesy and Cartography at the National Technical University of Athens (1977–1984) and, since 1992, has been an honorary member of the Technical Chamber of Greece.
He collaborated with Professor St. Papageorgiou on the book Land Communication Network in the State of Ali Pasha(Papazisis, 1990). He later wrote the historical article “Church and Revolution (1831–1832): The Relations of the Ecumenical Patriarchate with the National Movements,” published in a collective volume dedicated to Alexandros I. Despotopoulos (Papazisis, 1995).
In 1997 he participated in the 1st International Conference on Ancient Greek Technology in Thessaloniki, presenting the paper “The Technology of Bridge Construction in Ancient Greece,” and in 2002 he presented “An Approach to Bridge Construction in Ancient Greece” at a conference of EMAET at the Technical Chamber of Greece.
He has also published various studies in Technika Chronika and the bulletin of the Hellenic Military Geographical Service.
Today, when we speak of cable-stayed bridges, such a conception may seem overly simple to us. Yet it was precisely the beginning of modern bridge engineering. How much did the Greeks contribute to the historical development of this technique? What did they pass on to the Romans, who left their monumental bridges wherever they went? Why were bridges once so legendary?
Through field research and thorough study, the author has succeeded in collecting the material that forms this volume, making us familiar with the techniques and the various difficulties the ancient Greeks faced when crossing rivers.