"If the ships couldn’t be raised to the surface then the surface could be lowered to the ships!"

Emperor Caligula's Pleasure Craft?
[note how small the men are in the photo]

I'd been to Lago di Nemi in Italy and I even knew the tragic story of how the salvaged ancient Roman ships found on the lake bottom were lost to fire during the invasion of Italy in the Second World War. What I didn't know was that Mussolini drained the lake to get at the ships. The whole incredible story is here.

Another fascinating website with lots of information and links to photos and maps is here. Given what we know of Emperor Caligula's depravities, it's hard to fathom what actually happened on board this ship:

Original

In A Bit Of A Rut

Pompeii ca. 1992

Il Ponte Rotto (Cleveland)

A photo I took of a broken bridge across (or near) the Cuyahoga river in 1984:

A photo of the original Ponte Rotto in Rome along with its history can be found here.

Update:  I found some recent photographs of the Jefferson Avenue Bridge here and here

And: This is my favorite photo of the Ponte Rotto:

Notice how close the modern trastevere travesity comes to the old Ponte Rotto.