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Updated: May 29, 2025
So, at least, tradition says. From that bridge the Roman pontiffs had taken their title, 'Pontifex, a bridge-maker, because it was one of their chief duties to keep it in repair, when it was the only means of crossing the Tiber, and the safety of the city might depend upon it at any time; and for many centuries the bridge was built of oak, and without nails or bolts of iron, in memory of the first bridge which Horatius had kept.
That a priest means a pontiff, that a pontiff means a bridge-maker, that death is certainly a bridge, that death may turn out after all to be a reconciling priest, that at least priests and bridges both attest to the fact that one thing can get separated from another thing these ideas, and twenty more, are all actually concentrated in the word "pontifical."
First among these comes the office of pontifex, a word which is variously interpreted, either as "bridge-maker," that being a very important and solemn proceeding, or as leader in a religious procession. There were originally five pontifices, and the number was afterwards raised to fifteen.
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