PONTOON

Dictionary of Science, Literature and Art · 1854 · p. 25

A Military term, denoting a kind of flat bottomed boat, generally lined within and without with tin. Our pontoons are about 21 feet long, five feet broad, and two feet deep. They are carried along with an army for the purpose of making temporary bridges, called pontoon bridges, by which an army is pursued over rivers. [s. 979]