Editing Pontoon bridge (section)

===Middle Ages===
[[File:Puente Barcas Sevilla 1851.jpg|thumb|The old ''Puente de barcas'', connected [[Seville]] and [[Triana, Seville|Triana]] from 1171 to 1851]]
During the Middle Ages, pontoons were used alongside regular boats to span rivers during campaigns, or to link communities which lacked resources to build permanent bridges.<ref>[http://www.dsm.museum/MA/medieval_fleet.htm Per Hoffmann, The Medieval Fleet] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080524032111/http://www.dsm.museum/MA/medieval_fleet.htm |date=May 24, 2008 }}</ref> The [[Hun]] army of [[Attila]] built a bridge across the [[Nišava]] during the siege of [[Naissus]] in 442 to bring heavy siege towers within range of the city.{{sfn|Petersen|2013|p=280}} [[Sassanid]] forces crossed the [[Euphrates]] on a quickly built pontoon bridge during the siege of [[Raqqa|Kallinikos]] in 542. The [[Ostrogothic Kingdom]] constructed a fortified bridge across the [[Tiber]] during the [[Sack of Rome (546)|siege of Rome]] in 545 to block [[Byzantine]] general [[Belisarius]]' relief flotillas to the city.{{sfn|Petersen|2013|p=280}} The [[Avar Khaganate]] forced Syriac-Roman engineers to construct two pontoon bridges across the [[Sava]] during the [[siege of Sirmium]] in 580 to completely surround the city with their troops and siege works.{{sfn|Petersen|2013|p=280}}

Emperor [[Heraclius]] crossed the Bosporus on horseback on a large pontoon bridge in 638. The army of the [[Umayyad Caliphate]] built a pontoon bridge over the Bosporus in 717 during the [[siege of Constantinople (717–718)]]. The [[Carolingian]] army of [[Charlemagne]] constructed a portable pontoon bridge of anchored boats bound together and used it to cross the Danube during campaigns against the Avar Khaganate in the 790s.{{sfn|Bowlus|1995|p=56}} Charlemagne's army built two fortified pontoon bridges across the [[Elbe]] in 789 during a campaign against the Slavic [[Veleti]].{{sfn|Petersen|2013|p=749}} The German army of [[Otto the Great]] employed three pontoon bridges, made from pre-fabricated materials, to rapidly cross the [[Recknitz]] river at the [[Battle on the Raxa]] in 955 and win decisively against the Slavic [[Obotrites]].{{sfn|Bachrach|2014|p=218}} Tenth-Century German [[Ottonian]] [[capitularies]] demanded that royal fiscal estates maintain watertight, river-fordable wagons for purposes of war.{{sfn|Bachrach|2014|p=218}}

The Danish Army of [[Cnut the Great]] completed a pontoon bridge across the [[Helge River]] during the [[Battle of Helgeå]] in 1026. Crusader forces constructed a pontoon bridge across the [[Orontes River|Orontes]] to expedite resupply during the [[siege of Antioch]] in December 1097. According to the chronicles, the earliest floating bridge across the [[Dnieper]] was built in 1115. It was located near [[Vyshhorod]], [[Kiev]]. [[Duchy of Bohemia|Bohemian]] troops under the command of [[Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor]] crossed the [[Adige]] in 1157 on a pontoon bridge built in advance by the people of [[Verona]] on orders of the German Emperor.

The French Royal Army of King [[Philip II of France]] constructed a pontoon bridge across the [[Seine]] to seize [[Les Andelys]] from the English at the [[siege of Château Gaillard]] in 1203. During the [[Fifth Crusade]], the [[Crusaders]] built two pontoon bridges across the [[Nile]] at the [[siege of Damietta (1218–1219)]], including one supported by 38 boats. On 27 May 1234, Crusader troops crossed the river [[Ochtum]] in Germany on a pontoon bridge during the fight against the [[Stedingen|Stedingers]]. [[Mongol Empire|Imperial Mongol]] troops constructed a pontoon bridge at the [[Battle of Mohi]] in 1241 to outflank the Hungarian army. The French army of King [[Louis IX of France]] crossed the [[Charente (river)|Charente]] on multiple pontoon bridges during the [[Battle of Taillebourg]] on 21 July 1242. Louis IX had a pontoon bridge built across the Nile to provide unimpeded access to troops and supplies in early March 1250 during the [[Seventh Crusade]].

A [[Republic of Florence|Florentine]] army erected a pontoon bridge across the [[Arno]] during the siege of [[Pisa]] in 1406. The English army of [[John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury]] crossed the [[Oise (river)|Oise]] across a pontoon bridge of portable leather vessels in 1441. [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] engineers built a pontoon bridge across the [[Golden Horn]] during the [[siege of Constantinople (1453)]], using over a thousand barrels. The bridge was strong enough to support carts. The Ottoman Army constructed a pontoon bridge during the [[siege of Rhodes (1480)]]. [[Republic of Venice|Venetian]] pioneers built a floating bridge across the Adige at the [[Battle of Calliano (1487)]].