The plaque is between the east and west
bound carriageways at the Rochester end of the bridge and is beneath one of the
bridge's lions. The plaque tells us:
The Romans built a bridge of masonry on
this site during their occupation of Britain which stood until 960 A.D. when
it was rebuilt in timber by the Anglo-Saxons.
In 1264 A.D. this was destroyed by fire
and rebuilt but in 1281 A.D. it was washed away by floods.
In 1344-5 the bridge was again restored
but proved inadequate for the increasing traffic.
In 1388 a substantial stone bridge of
stone was built by Sir Robert Knolles and Sir John de Cobham which lasted
until 1856 when it was replaced by one of cast iron from the design of William
Cubitt. M.I.C.E.
That bridge having proved insufficient
for navigation and modern road traffic was rebuilt in steel and granite in
1914 from the design of Arthur Cameron Hurtzig and John James Robson
M.M.INST.C.E.
The Medway
Council website tells us:
"It seems almost certain that the Romans built the first
bridge across the Medway at Rochester. Their invading army may have built a
temporary crossing shortly after the invasion but this would have been replaced
with a stronger bridge some years later. We do not know what it looked like but
in 1851, during the building of the modern cast iron bridge, the engineers
struck the foundations of one of the Roman piers. This tells us that the line of
the bridge was the same as today. The stone foundations those Victorians found
probably supported a wooden roadway.
Looking after a bridge is an expensive business. During
the Anglo-Saxon period, the English kings began to spread the cost around local
landowners by issuing charters which divided up the bridge and named the people
responsible for each section.
Despite partial reconstructions, by the middle of the
14th century the bridge was collapsing almost every year. The final straw was
the winter of 1380/81, when the Medway froze and a large section of the bridge
was carried away in the following thaw.
A new bridge, made entirely of stone, was finished in
about 1391. It was built a little upstream of the present structure and was paid
for by Sir John de Cobham and Sir Robert Knolles. Sir John was a local
landowner, while Sir Robert had made a huge fortune during the wars with France.
Together they worked to provide for the upkeep of the bridge, maintaining the
system of raising money for repairs under the supervision of two elected
wardens.
Rochester managed with the stone bridge until 1850, when
work began on a cast iron structure at about the time that the railway bridge
was also built. The new road bridge was finished in 1856 and shortly afterwards
the Royal Engineers were called in to blow up the old one. All that remains is
part of the stone balustrade, which now lines the Rochester esplanade. The new
bridge was not without its problems, as the arches which supported the roadway
were always getting tangled up with passing river traffic. As a result, the
bridge was rebuilt in 1913 and the number of arches was reduced. This gave us
the bridge we see today, although it is now accompanied by a second road bridge,
which was opened in 1970."
The Council's website also tells us:
"Roman Medway 43 - 410
Although Julius Caesar led expeditions into Kent in 55
and 54 BC, it was not until AD 43 that Britain became part of the Roman Empire,
conquered by an invading army sent by the Emperor Claudius. Aulus Plautius, the
victorious general, became Britain’s first Governor. Kent was split into two
halves: the west was governed from Rochester, Medway’s first walled town. The
Romans called this settlement Durobrivae, meaning “the stronghold by the
bridges.”
Most small-scale farmers in Medway probably continued
working in the same fashion as they had before the conquest. While Latin became
the official language for business, law and government, the native British
language remained in use in daily life. People with larger farms or estates
began to build new Roman-style houses called villas.
A road system was built through Medway, based around
Watling Street, the main route from London to Dover now followed by the A2. The
new roads, together with improved port facilities, opened up Britain even more
to the wider world and supported growing industries such as the Medway
potteries.
Periods of unrest in the empire during the fourth
century AD affected government in Britain. When the legions were finally
withdrawn at the start of the fifth century, Britain entered an obscure period
of change as Germanic settlers from northern Europe migrated to southern and
eastern Britain and the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were
born."