Because of its tremendous strength under compressive forces, stone can bear an almost unlimited load when arranged in the form of an arch. The ancient Romans used stone arches for large bridges and aqueducts, and the tradition of building bridges in stone continued in medieval and Renaissance Europe.

Bridges varied considerably in their masonry techniques. At its most basic, a stone-arch bridge could be built using flat or wedge-shaped fieldstone laid up in the shape of an arch. Most bridge builders, however, used cut stone at least for the arch ring, since shaping the ring stones resulted in a more perfect arch. The sides or spandrels of the bridge were less critical; their function was simply to retain the fill for the roadway. Spandrels were often of rubble (randomly shaped stone) even when the ring stones were cut. In more ornate stone-arch bridges, the spandrel masonry was ashlar (rectangular-shaped cut-stone blocks).

. Towns built them only on their most important roads. In the second half of the 19th century, many stone arches were built just downstream from mill dams.