The Damiyah Bridge (), known as Prince Muhammad Bridge in

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

, and as Gesher Adam () in

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

, is a historical bridge that crosses the

Jordan River The Jordan River or River Jordan (, ''Nahr al-ʾUrdunn''; , ''Nəhar hayYardēn''), also known as ''Nahr Al-Sharieat'' (), is a endorheic river in the Levant that flows roughly north to south through the Sea of Galilee and drains to the Dead ...

and located between the

Palestinian territories The occupied Palestinian territories, also referred to as the Palestinian territories, consist of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip—two regions of the former Mandate for Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine ...

and the town of Damia in the

Balqa Governorate Balqa' ( ''Al Balqā’'') is one of the governorates of Jordan. It is located northwest of Amman, Jordan's capital. The governorate has the fourth largest population of the 12 governorates of Jordan, and is ranked 10th by area. It has the thir ...

. In 1918, during the

Sinai and Palestine Campaign The Sinai and Palestine campaign was part of the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I, taking place between January 1915 and October 1918. The British Empire, the French Third Republic, and the Kingdom of Italy fought alongside the Arab Revol ...

of the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, it was captured by Imperial British forces. At the time it was used as part of the

Nablus Nablus ( ; , ) is a State of Palestine, Palestinian city in the West Bank, located approximately north of Jerusalem, with a population of 156,906. Located between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it is the capital of the Nablus Governorate and a ...

– Es Salt –

Amman Amman ( , ; , ) is the capital and the largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of four million as of 2021, Amman is Jordan's primate city and is the largest city in the Levant ...

road. After 1991 it was used only for goods transported by truck between Israel, the

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

and Jordan until its closure for security reasons sometime between 2002 and 2005 during the

Second Intifada The Second Intifada (; ), also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada, was a major uprising by Palestinians against Israel and its Israeli-occupied territories, occupation from 2000. Starting as a civilian uprising in Jerusalem and October 2000 prot ...

. As of 2014, the Israeli side is part of a closed military area.

Etymology

The

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' town called Adam near Zaretan in the Jordan Valley (). Most scholars identify nearby Tall Damiyah, called by some Tel Adam in

Modern Hebrew Modern Hebrew (, or ), also known as Israeli Hebrew or simply Hebrew, is the Standard language, standard form of the Hebrew language spoken today. It is the only surviving Canaanite language, as well as one of the List of languages by first w ...

, with the historical and

biblical The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) biblical languages ...

city of

Adama Adama ( Oromo: ', Amharic: አዳማ), formerly Nazreth (), is one of the cities of Oromia Region of Ethiopia. Located in the East Shewa Zone southeast of the capital, Addis Ababa, the city sits between the base of an escarpment to the west, ...

, with the US-American biblical scholar

William F. Albright William Foxwell Albright (May 24, 1891 – September 19, 1971) was an American archaeologist, biblical scholar, philologist, and expert on ceramics. He is considered "one of the twentieth century's most influential American biblical scholars ...

offering the theory that Adama/Admah and Adam are one and the same. The Arabic name is spelled variously as Damiye, Damieh, Damia, etc., with or without the definitive article (spelled either al-, el-, ad-, ed-).

History

The bridge was used as a crossing between the west and east banks of the Jordan due to good access in both directions over the Far'a/ Tirzah Valley to the west and the Zarqa/Yabbok Valley to the east. In 1849, William F. Lynch described the ruins of the old bridge as "a Roman bridge spanning a dry bed, once, perhaps, the main channel of the Jordan, now diverted in its course. The bridge was of Roman construction, with one arch entire, except a longitudinal fissure on the top, and the ruins of two others, one of them at right angles with the main arch, probably for a mill-

sluice A sluice ( ) is a water channel containing a sluice gate, a type of lock to manage the water flow and water level. There are various types of sluice gates, including flap sluice gates and fan gates. Different depths are calculated when design s ...

. The span of the main arch was fifteen feet; the height, from the bed of the stream to the keystone, twenty feet." Still visible are ruins of several consecutive bridges: the stone bridge built by the

Mamluk Mamluk or Mamaluk (; (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural); translated as "one who is owned", meaning "slave") were non-Arab, ethnically diverse (mostly Turkic, Caucasian, Eastern and Southeastern European) enslaved mercenaries, slave-so ...

sultan Sultan (; ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be use ...

Baibars Al-Malik al-Zahir Rukn al-Din Baybars al-Bunduqdari (; 1223/1228 – 1 July 1277), commonly known as Baibars or Baybars () and nicknamed Abu al-Futuh (, ), was the fourth Mamluk sultan of Egypt and Syria, of Turkic Kipchak origin, in the Ba ...

in the 13th century, blown up by

Haganah Haganah ( , ) was the main Zionist political violence, Zionist paramilitary organization that operated for the Yishuv in the Mandatory Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine. It was founded in 1920 to defend the Yishuv's presence in the reg ...

forces during Operation Markolet (known as the

Night of the bridges The Night of the Bridges (formally Operation Markolet) was a Haganah venture on the night of 16 to 17 June 1946 in the British Mandate of Palestine, as part of the Jewish insurgency in Palestine (1944–47). Its aim was to destroy eleven brid ...

) on the night of 16–17 June 1946; a British bridge built soon after, and a Jordanian one from the 1950s, both destroyed by the

Israeli army The Israeli Ground Forces () are the Army, ground forces of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The commander is the GOC Army Headquarters, General Officer Commanding with the rank of major general, the ''Mazi'', subordinate to the Chief of the Gen ...

during the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...

in 1967. Right after the war, in August 1967, Israeli

Minister of Defense A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and military forces, found in states where the government is divid ...

Moshe Dayan Moshe Dayan (; May 20, 1915 – October 16, 1981) was an Israeli military leader and politician. As commander of the Jerusalem front in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Chief of General Staff (Israel), Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defe ...

allowed the uncontrolled traffic of goods between the Palestinians and Jordan using the ford of Damiya, as a way of avoiding the economic collapse of the West Bank and for avoiding Palestinian discontent, since the Israeli markets were not open yet to Palestinian produce. This was an element of what became known as the "policy of the open bridges". In January 1968, Jordan built a prefabricated metal bridge to facilitate the trade connections to the West Bank. The bridge was open to both goods and people, but fighting due to the

War of Attrition The War of Attrition (; ) involved fighting between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and their allies from 1967 to 1970. Following the 1967 Six-Day War, no serious diplomatic efforts were made to resolve t ...

led to the 1968 Battle of Karameh during which the bridge was damaged by Jordanian artillery who tried to prevent Israeli armour from passing. In 1969, the Jordanians blew up parts of this bridge, but it was repaired at some later point. During the Jordanian Civil War (better known as Black September) in 1970, the bridge was again closed for several days during the fighting between the Palestinians and the Jordanian Army. The Jordanians repaired the bridge in early 1975 after it had been damaged by floods, and performed some amendments in 1976. The Jordanian metal bridge still stands but is currently out of use. In 2014, Palestinian authorities were negotiating with Jordan the possibilities of reopening traffic between the two sides.

References

External links

BibleWalks.com – Adam Bridge

– For the role of Damiya Bridge in the 1967 6-Day War

''Middle East Record, Volume 4''
– For the role of Damiya Bridge in the March 1968 Battle of Karameh *{{cite web , title= Jisr Ed Damiye Monthly Climate Average, Jordan , publisher= worldweatheronline.com , url= http://www.worldweatheronline.com/Jisr-Ed-Damiye-weather-averages/Al-Balqa/JO.aspx , access-date= 27 January 2015 Bridges in Jordan Bridges over the Jordan River Jordan–West Bank border crossings Bridges completed in 1968

Etymology

History

See also

References

External links