 The first , and as of 2008 only scientific examination of the bridge was undertaken by the German archaeologists Wolfgang W. Wurster and Joachim Ganzert in two successive days in September 1973 , and completed through further visits in subsequent years . Their findings were published in 1978 in the Archäologischer Anzeiger journal of the German Archaeological Institute , with the express intent of bringing the imperiled state of the hitherto almost intact bridge into the spotlight : 
