A pontoon 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 that they can carry.
The Bergsøysund Bridge uses concrete pontoons
Mughal emperor Akbar the Great riding the ferocious elephant Hawa'i, pursuing another elephant across a collapsing bridge of boats (left), in Basawan and Chetar Munti's "Akbar's Adventure with the Elephant Hawa’i", dated 1561
Roman legionaries marching across a pontoon bridge, a relief scene from the column of Emperor Trajan (r. 98–117 AD) in Rome, Italy (monochrome, from the photographs by Conrad Cichorius)
Roman Legionaries crossing the Danube River by pontoon bridge, as depicted in relief on the column of Emperor Marcus Aurelius (r. 161–180 AD) in Rome, Italy
The Battle of Oudenarde, also known as the Battle of Oudenaarde, was a major engagement of the War of the Spanish Succession, pitting a Grand Alliance force consisting of eighty thousand men under the command of the Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy against a French force of eighty-five thousand men under the command of the Duc de Bourgogne and the Duc de Vendôme, the battle resulting in a great victory for the Grand Alliance. The battle was fought near the city of Oudenaarde, at the time part of the Spanish Netherlands, on 11 July 1708. With this victory, the Grand Alliance ensured the fall of various French territories, giving them a significant strategic and tactical advantage during this stage of the war. The battle was fought in the later years of the war, a conflict that had come about as a result of English, Dutch and Habsburg apprehension at the possibility of a Bourbon succeeding the deceased King of Spain, Charles II, and combining their two nations and empires into one.
The Battle of Oudenarde, by Jan van Huchtenburg
The Duke of Marlborough at Oudenaarde
The Duke of Marlborough at the Battle of Oudenaarde, John Wootton
The young Prince of Orange received much praise from in and outside the Dutch Republic for his decisive role in his first major battle.