<p><b>Newport Arch</b> is the name given to the remains of a 3rd-century Roman gate in the city of <a href="/pages/w/106093606088457">Lincoln, Lincolnshire</a>. It is reputedly the oldest arch in the United Kingdom still used by traffic.</p><h2>History</h2><p>The arch was remodelled and enlarged when the city, then <a href="/pages/w/105943562769459">Lindum Colonia</a> a Roman town, became capital of the province <a href="/pages/w/137683269587365">Flavia Caesariensis</a> in the 4th century. It is one of many original Roman arches still open to traffic, other examples being two gates through the city walls of the Roman town of <a href="/pages/w/211589195522198">Diocletianopolis</a> (now <a href="/pages/w/109652985721035">Hisarya, Bulgaria</a>), as well as numerous examples in <a href="/pages/w/112441795436856">Turkey</a>.</p><p>As the north gate of the city, it carried the major Roman road <a href="/pages/w/248487695177285">Ermine Street</a> northward almost in a straight line to the <a href="/pages/w/111982155481185">Humber</a>.</p><p>From <i>Romano-British Buildings and Earthworks</i> by John Ward (1911):</p><p><dl><dd>“A considerable portion of the north gate of Lincoln — the Newport Arch — is standing, but is buried to the extent of about. in the soil and débris accumulated since Roman times. The structure is about. deep and has a single passage for the road, 17½ ft. wide. The inner or back portal of this passage is still intact, and is nearly. in the clear and rises to a height of about 22½ ft. above the Roman level. Its arch is of a single ring of large limestone <a href="/pages/w/108674162499796">voussoir</a>s rising from imposts which appear to have been moulded. The outer or front arch has long since disappeared. On the east side is a <a href="/pages/w/114764735203002">postern</a> for pedestrians,. wide and contracting to about. at the north end, and. high from the Roman level. On the west side there was a similar postern about a century ago. The whole structure is of good masonry, and it appears to have projected considerably beyond the north face of the town wall.”</dd></dl></p>