Xerxes Built Massive Mile-Long Bridges to Cross the Sea

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]In 480 BC, the Persian [music] King Xerxes assembled over 100,000 soldiers, the largest army the ancient world had ever seen, and marched forth to invade [music] Greece. To get there, he needed to cross the Hellespont, a wild stretch of water separating Asia from Europe. His engineers built two enormous pontoon [music] bridges made of hundreds of ships lashed together with massive cables. A storm came and destroyed both of them. Xerxes, furious, ordered his soldiers to whip the water 300 times and throw chains into it to symbolize his dominion over the sea.

[00:00:37]Most people hear that story [music] and stop there. But then Xerxes did something truly remarkable. He ordered new engineers to design a completely different bridge [music] using stronger iron chains anchored in a configuration that accounted for the current. It worked. The new bridges held through storms that would have torn the first ones apart. His entire force, cavalry, war elephants, supply wagons, and equipment crossed successfully on two parallel bridges [music] stretching over a mile of open water.

[00:01:08]Greek historian Herodotus wrote that the crossing lasted for seven [music] straight days and nights without stopping. The king history remembers for whipping the ocean pulled off one of the greatest feats of military engineering ever recorded.