Boulevart

Fr. formerly meant a bastion. It is no longer used as a military phrase, although it sometimes occurs in the description of works or lines which cover a whole country, and protect it from the incursions of an enemy. Thus Str as burgh and Landau may be called two principal boulevarts or bulwarks, by which France is protected on this side of the Rhine. The elevated line or rampart which reaches from the Champs Elysées in Paris beyond the spot where the bastille was destroyed in 1789, is stiled the Boulevart. In ancient times, when the Romans attacked any place, they raised boulevarts near the circumference of the walls. These boulevarts were 80 feet high, 300 feet broad, upon which wooden towers commanding the ramparts were erected covered on all sides with iron-work, and from which the besiegers threw upon the besieged stones, darts, fire-works, . to facilitate the approaches of the archers and battering rams.