ABSTRACT
The innovation at Albi in 1408 was the use of a cofferdam in rebuilding the cutwater, which made it possible to drive piles under the foundation and to lay the masonry where it was dry. Materials for the reconstruction of the bridge at Albi were all available locally. In rebuilding the bridge all operations unrelated to masonry and expert carpentry were performed by laborers, or at least by unskilled workers. One of the factors making for the preservation of the main features of the Pont de Tarn was the matter of finances. Maintenance was very expensive, and the revenues of the bridge failed to cover it. Albi was constantly short of funds, especially during the reconstruction of the fortifications required by the Hundred Years War. The Pont de Tarn is mentioned again in a chronicle of the twelfth century, and a thirteenth-century toll list for the bridge has survived.
