What kind of bridge is a pontoon bridge?

The pontoon bridge was called the pontoon beam in ancient times. It uses boats instead of piers, so it is called "floating", "floating truss" and "floating bridge" and belongs to temporary bridges. Because of its simple erection and rapid completion, pontoons are often used in the military, so they are also called "battle bridges".

There are two structural forms of pontoon bridge: ① Traditional form. Put a beam on the boat or pontoon bridge and lay a bridge deck on the beam. ② Ship-beam combination form. The ship (box) body, beam and bridge deck are combined into a whole, and the ships are connected end to end in a row, or the ship (box) body is closely arranged in a belt. Cable anchorage is arranged upstream and downstream to maintain the stability of the bridge axis. Trestles or springboards are set at both ends of the bridge to connect with the shore. In order to adapt to the fluctuation of water level, lifting trestles or lifting docks should be set up on both banks.

The pontoon bridge can be said to be the ancestor of large bridges. It is the development of crossing the river by boat, and it is also the transition to building a fixed bridge, which has become a tool for crossing the river between ships and bridges.

The pontoon bridge can be used for pedestrians, highways and railways. Its structure is not complicated, and it is convenient to assemble and disassemble, but its maintenance cost is high. Usually, it can be used for emergency disaster relief or as temporary transportation facilities, and it can be used to ensure troops to quickly cross the military standard pontoon bridge of rivers in wartime. In order to increase its mobility, it is often made of light metal and self-propelled.