| Encyclopaedia Britannica 11th Edition | Public Domain via Project Gutenberg |
(Fr. tête-du-pont), in fortification, a work designed to cover the passage of a river by means of fortifications [v.04 p.0532]on one or both banks. As the process of moving an army over bridges is slow and complicated, it is usually necessary to secure it from hostile interruption, and the works constituting the bridge-head must therefore be sufficiently far advanced to keep the enemy's artillery out of range of the bridges. In addition, room is required for the troops to form up on the farther bank. In former days, with short-range weapons, a bridge-head was often little more than a screen for the bridge itself, but modern conditions have rendered necessary far greater extension of bridge defences.