Pontifex

I found out something interesting today in a book called The Civilization of Rome, by Donald R. Dudley (New York: New American Library, 1962). I've always heard that the word pontifex means "bridge builder" because a priest builds a bridge between the gods and men. As it turns out the term pontifex originally came from a college of priests who had responsibility for a sacred bridge over the Tiber, the Pons Sublacus. They were literally bridge builders.