ARCADIA 



318 



ARCH 



Rome has three arcades, one over the other; 

 Palace of the Doges at Venice 

 and second stories are arcaded, 

 the intt-rior court (see COLOSSEUM; 

 DOGE). The arcade was a favorite form of the 

 It appears in their mosques in 

 Cairo and when the Moors came to Spain they 

 introduced it into their building there. Among 

 the most beautiful arcades in all architecture 

 are those which, resting on white marble pil- 

 lars, surround the Court of the Lions in the 

 Alhambra at Granada, Spain (see ALHAMBRA). 

 ARCADIA, in ancient Greece, the central 

 and most mountainous part of the Pelopon- 

 nesus, whose inhabitants were largely a shep- 

 herd people. They were famed throughout 

 Greece for the simplicity and innocence of 



open space, as in doorways, windows, roofs, 

 bridges or tunnels. Arches are made of stone, 



ARCADIA (IN BLACK) 

 Surrounding provinces were as folows : 



(a) Elis 

 (&) Achaea 



(c) Argolis 



(d) Messenia 



(e) Laconia 

 (/) Acarnania 

 (g) Aetolia 

 (7i) Aeniania 

 (t) Locrls 



(j) Doris 

 (fc) Oetaea 

 (Z) Malis 

 (in) Phocis 

 (n) Boeotia 

 (o) Megaris 

 (p) Attica 

 (q) Euboea 



their character and manners, and for that 

 reason the name Arcadia came to be used 

 worldwide as a symbol of rural simplicity and 

 happiness. In every country, especially at 

 times when life has been most complex and 

 artificial, poets and prose writers have de- 

 lighted to write tales of a fanciful Arcadia, 

 where charming shepherdesses and brave shep- 

 herds spent their life in unbroken peace and 

 happiness. Of these romances the Arcadia of 

 Sir Philip Sidney is perhaps the most famous. 

 ARCH, an architectural form that combines 

 grace and beauty with strength and utility. 

 It has no support on the sides or top, but by 

 reason of the perfect balance of its parts is 

 able to bear the weight of a load over an 



DETAILS OF THE ARCH 

 The various parts are described in the text. 



brick, wood and steel, but the wooden arch 

 is little used in building at the present time. 

 The most common form of the arch is that 

 of a bow, but some arches are pointed, and 

 there are a great many modifications of both 

 the round and the pointed arch. The illus- 

 tration shows the various parts. 



The typical arch is composed of wedge- 

 shaped pieces, called voussoirs, ring-stones or 

 arch-stones, the middle stone being the key- 

 stone and .the lowest stone on either side the 

 skewbac, or springer. The highest part is called 

 the crown; the sides, haunches; the curve on 

 the inner side, the intrados; the outer curve, 

 the extrados. The base which supports the 

 lowest stone on each side is the impost; in 

 the illustration it consists of bricks. The dis- 

 tance between the two supports of an arch 

 at its lower part is its span; the rise is the 

 height from the bottom of the haunches to 

 the under side of the keystone. 



A single stone, called a lintel, constituted 

 the oldest and simplest device employed in 

 supporting a structure over a doorway. The 

 ancient Egyptians, Assyrians, Etruscans and 

 Greeks found the lintel practically sufficient 

 for their needs; though they understood the 

 principle of the arch, only the Etruscans used 

 it to any extent. Among the Romans, how- 

 ever, it met with great favor and was devel- 

 oped to a high type of usefulness, appearing 

 in their buildings, drains, aqueducts and 

 bridges. The opening of the Cloaca Maxima, 

 or Great Sewer, is still seen at Rome, and is 

 supposed to be the oldest Roman arch, having 

 been built about 500 B.C. The curved arch 

 maintained its popularity until the Middle 

 Ages, when the pointed or Gothic form came 

 into use. 



The Cabin John Bridge, near Washington, 

 D. C., is the longest stone span in the United 

 States ; it is 220 feet long and twenty feet wide, 

 and has a rise of fifty-seven feet. The largest 

 stone arch ever made is at Plauen, Germany; 



