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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
pontoon bridge
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ About 300 tanks, artillery pieces and other heavy vehicles will have crossed the pontoon bridge by Wednesday, military engineers say.
▪ Military traffic has been crossing the new pontoon bridge since Dec. 31 at a rate up to 400 vehicles each day.
▪ The pontoon bridge linking Balzac to Joyce.
▪ They crossed over by pontoon bridge.
▪ We soon saw the lengthy pontoon bridge spanning the Angara River.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Pontoon bridge

Pontoon \Pon*toon"\, n. [F. ponton (cf. It. pontone), from L. ponto, -onis, fr. pons, pontis, a bridge, perhaps originally, a way, path: cf. Gr. ? path, Skr. path, pathi, panthan. Cf. Punt a boat.]

  1. (Mil.) A wooden flat-bottomed boat, a metallic cylinder, or a frame covered with canvas, India rubber, etc., forming a portable float, used in building bridges quickly for the passage of troops.

  2. (Naut.) A low, flat vessel, resembling a barge, furnished with cranes, capstans, and other machinery, used in careening ships, raising weights, drawing piles, etc., chiefly in the Mediterranean; a lighter.

    Pontoon bridge, a bridge formed with pontoons.

    Pontoon train, the carriages of the pontoons, and the materials they carry for making a pontoon bridge.

    Note: The French spelling ponton often appears in scientific works, but pontoon is more common form.

Pontoon bridge

Bridge \Bridge\ (br[i^]j), n. [OE. brig, brigge, brug, brugge, AS. brycg, bricg; akin to Fries. bregge, D. brug, OHG. brucca, G. br["u]cke, Icel. bryggja pier, bridge, Sw. brygga, Dan. brygge, and prob. Icel. br[=u] bridge, Sw. & Dan. bro bridge, pavement, and possibly to E. brow.]

  1. A structure, usually of wood, stone, brick, or iron, erected over a river or other water course, or over a chasm, railroad, etc., to make a passageway from one bank to the other.

  2. Anything supported at the ends, which serves to keep some other thing from resting upon the object spanned, as in engraving, watchmaking, etc., or which forms a platform or staging over which something passes or is conveyed.

  3. (Mus.) The small arch or bar at right angles to the strings of a violin, guitar, etc., serving of raise them and transmit their vibrations to the body of the instrument.

  4. (Elec.) A device to measure the resistance of a wire or other conductor forming part of an electric circuit.

  5. A low wall or vertical partition in the fire chamber of a furnace, for deflecting flame, etc.; -- usually called a bridge wall.

    Aqueduct bridge. See Aqueduct.

    Asses' bridge, Bascule bridge, Bateau bridge. See under Ass, Bascule, Bateau.

    Bridge of a steamer (Naut.), a narrow platform across the deck, above the rail, for the convenience of the officer in charge of the ship; in paddlewheel vessels it connects the paddle boxes.

    Bridge of the nose, the upper, bony part of the nose.

    Cantalever bridge. See under Cantalever.

    Draw bridge. See Drawbridge.

    Flying bridge, a temporary bridge suspended or floating, as for the passage of armies; also, a floating structure connected by a cable with an anchor or pier up stream, and made to pass from bank to bank by the action of the current or other means.

    Girder bridge or Truss bridge, a bridge formed by girders, or by trusses resting upon abutments or piers.

    Lattice bridge, a bridge formed by lattice girders.

    Pontoon bridge, Ponton bridge. See under Pontoon.

    Skew bridge, a bridge built obliquely from bank to bank, as sometimes required in railway engineering.

    Suspension bridge. See under Suspension.

    Trestle bridge, a bridge formed of a series of short, simple girders resting on trestles.

    Tubular bridge, a bridge in the form of a hollow trunk or rectangular tube, with cellular walls made of iron plates riveted together, as the Britannia bridge over the Menai Strait, and the Victoria bridge at Montreal.

    Wheatstone's bridge (Elec.), a device for the measurement of resistances, so called because the balance between the resistances to be measured is indicated by the absence of a current in a certain wire forming a bridge or connection between two points of the apparatus; -- invented by Sir Charles Wheatstone.

Wiktionary
pontoon bridge

n. A temporary bridge built over floating pontoons

WordNet
pontoon bridge

n. a temporary bridge built over a series of pontoons [syn: bateau bridge, floating bridge]

Wikipedia
Pontoon bridge

A pontoon bridge (or ponton bridge), also known as a floating bridge, uses floats or shallow-draft boats to support a continuous deck for pedestrian and vehicle travel. The buoyancy of the supports limits the maximum load they can carry.

Most pontoon bridges are temporary, used in wartime and civil emergencies. Permanent floating bridges are useful for sheltered water-crossings where it is not considered economically feasible to suspend a bridge from anchored piers. Such bridges can require a section that is elevated, or can be raised or removed, to allow waterborne traffic to pass.

Pontoon bridges have been in use since ancient times and have been used to great advantage in many battles throughout history, among them the Battle of Garigliano, the Battle of Oudenarde, the crossing of the Rhine during World War II, and during the Iran–Iraq War Operation Dawn 8.

Usage examples of "pontoon bridge".

He looked anxiously over the river to the Colonial fortlet planted where the pontoon bridge had been.

A string of lights across the water: sentinel-lanterns along the wog pontoon bridge.

As he had predicted, the Malwa were attempting to cross the Nehar Malka on a pontoon bridge.

By the time the last dehgan trotted back across the pontoon bridge, almost a third of the Malwa fleet had been destroyed, along with most of the sailors who had manned those ships.

Dante started the motor and sped toward the pontoon bridge and his quarters on the south bank.

As Hiro is entering their neighborhood, he sees men running down the undulating pontoon bridge that serves as the main street, carrying guns and knives.

The only other sight worth seeing was the remains of the pontoon bridge which the French had repaired at the beginning of April, but had now blown up because of Sir Arthur Wellesley’.

The only other sight worth seeing was the remains of the pontoon bridge which the French had repaired at the beginning of April, but had now blown up because of Sir Arthur Wellesley's approach.

In time, they emerged on an open hill, to see in the distance below them a pontoon bridge, with a steady stream of enemy soldiers crossing and fanning out on the near side of the river.

These pylons had prows like icebreakers on their upstream side, and on their downstream side there was attached a kind of pontoon bridge, which rode over the passing ice of the glacier using cushioned smart pads that expanded or contracted to compensate for drops and rises in the ice.

There ahead lay the pontoon bridge Bill the Bald had stretched across the river.