The thing about pontoons is that they are a family affair. Mum, Dad, grandparents, children, nieces, nephews, the dogs and even the cat if it allows itself to be coaxed, are all invited. Or how about a party? Up to thirty people can get on board the largest pontoon, which, just for note, would usually have a maximum length of 33’ and a width of 8’. (This is important because they can be overloaded, resulting in consequences which are usually not at all enjoyable. So check the size and carrying capacity then, if this is for you.)
Their construction is such an easy concept that one wonders why it wasn’t thought about a long time ago. According to reports – construction wise – today’s commercial pontoons owe their origin to a Mr. Ambrose Weeres. Mr. Weeres lived in Minnesota, USA, where there are 10,004 lakes (has anyone really counted them?), and so it’s safe to assume that water was an integrated part of his life.
One day the thought occurred to him that in circumstances where space was more important than speed, a sort of floating, moveable platform would fit the bill. He welded together two sets of two steel barrels each, end-to-end, placed them side by side and lashed a wooden platform on top of them. It worked. The pontoon was born. The year was 1951.
But pontoon bridges were used in World War II which ended in 1945, which means a pontoon needs a definition. The online Oxford dictionary defines pontoons as ‘a flat-bottomed boat or hollow metal cylinder used, with others, to support a temporary bridge or floating landing stage’.
The first known record of the pontoon concept occurs in the mention of a temporary floating bridge in writings from Ancient China during the Zhou Dynasty probably during the 8th Century BC. (Wikipedia). Later records show that during the reign of Darius I of Persia 522 – 485 BC an imaginative visionary saw the building of a pontoon bridge that stretched across the Bosphorus, linking Asia to Europe, a distance of approximately nineteen miles. Another account of a similar structure of substantial size was a bridge of boats built by Xerxes, King of Persia across the Hellespont (today the Dardanelles) at Abydos in 481 BC. Six hundred and seventy four vessels, tied together by ropes and securely anchored, allowed the whole Persian army, dry footed, to cross. Laid over the vessels were earth and brushwood which were transversed by tree trunks. (Wikipedia). Technically, each pontoon bridge can support a load equal to the mass of water that it displaces; this load includes the mass of the bridge itself. Unfortunately, there seems to be no record of who designed the bridges or how the load was calculated to arrive at the exact size the bridge needed to be to carry the weight of the armies. The fact that the crossings were successful speaks volumes for the engineers.
Pontoon Bridges have served their purpose spectacularly through history – the Romans built one over the River Thames in AD 50 at a spot which later became the site of London Bridge. This Roman bridge didn’t survive longer than AD55 when another bridge of different structure replaced it. Wherever they have been built, at a later stage they’ve been removed because their inevitable disadvantage is that they block the waterway. No solution to this seems ever to have been found.
A few still exist. Of note and also the longest floating bridge in the world is the Governor Albert D Rosellini Bridge in Washington State USA. It is more commonly called the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge and is due for replacement soon because of its inability to withstand massive storms. Another is the Murrow Memorial Bridge over Lake Washington, the first of which sank in 1990. China, Poland, Dubai, Norway, Turkey and other countries all have pontoon bridges of note. Atmospheric moisture creates a long term problem to their upkeep.
For some commercial recreational pontoons of smaller size visit:
www.theboatingstore.co.cc
The author is a retired teacher of geography and maths. Having grown up on a farm, she has maintained an interest in outdoor pursuits. Also interested in sustainable small businesses.
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