What is arch?

Arch

An arch is a structure that spans a space and supports a load. Arches appeared as early as the 2nd millennium BC in Mesopotamian brick architecture and their systematic use started with the Ancient Romans who were the first to apply the technique to a wide range of structures.

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Famous quotes containing the word arch:

    Thir dread commander: he above the rest
    In shape and gesture proudly eminent
    Stood like a Towr; his form had yet not lost
    All her Original brightness, nor appear’d
    Less than Arch Angel ruind, and th’ excess
    Of Glory obscur’d: As when the Sun new ris’n
    Looks through the Horizontal misty Air
    Shorn of his Beams, or from behind the Moon
    In dim Eclips disastrous twilight sheds
    On half the Nations, and with fear of change
    Perplexes Monarchs.
    John Milton (1608–1674)

    Prayer is the fair and radiant daughter of all the human virtues, the arch connecting heaven and earth, the sweet companion that is alike the lion and the dove; and prayer will give you the key of heaven. As pure and as bold as innocence, as strong as all things are that are entire and single, this fair and invincible queen rests on the material world; she has taken possession of it; for, like the sun, she casts about it a sphere of light.
    HonorĂ© De Balzac (1799–1850)

    An arch never sleeps.
    East Indian saying.