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Boat-bridge.

A boat-bridge consists of a track laid on a number of boats anchored parallel in the stream, or moored to ropes or chains which pass from bank to bank.

The bridge thrown across the Hellespont by Xerxes when he invaded Greece, 480 B. C., had a length of 500 paces, and was supported on ships used as pontons. Suspension cables of flax and biblos united the ships, transverse beams were laid on the cables; the beams supported plank and earth, and the army marched across, bag and baggage.

Many years after, there appears to have been a more permanent construction of this nature in the same vicinity.

“At abydos is the Zeugma [or Junction], a bridge of boats which could be unfixed at pleasure for the passage of vessels.” — Strabo.

Cyrus, according to Xenophon, crossed the Meander on a bridge supported by seven boats.

Bridges of boats were in general use in the Middle Ages, and are still used on the Continent of Europe. One at Strasbourg is 1,300 feet long, and there is another at Cologne. One across the Seine at Rouen was constructed by Nicolas in 1700.

Boat-bridges, in a military point of view, are classed as ponton-bridges, the pontons or bateaux and the road-bed being transported on wagons with the army, and thrown across streams as necessity may occur. The bateaux are moored to ropes secured to trees or other safe objects on the respective sides of the river. See Ponton-bridge.

1877.

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