Pontoon bridge using a single 'o'. The U.S. military differentiated between the bridge itself ("ponton") and the floats used to provide buoyancy ("pontoon"). The original word was derived from Old French "ponton", from Latin "ponto" ("ferryboat"), from "pons" ("bridge"). When designing a pontoon bridge, the civil engineer must take into consideration the Archimedes' principle: Each pontoon can support a load equal to the mass of the water that it displaces. This load includes the mass of the bridge and the pontoon itself. If the maximum load of a bridge section is exceeded, one or more pontoons become submerged. Flexible connections have to
Pontoon (song) Lambert called "Fine Tune", but the publisher thought that it was called "Pontoon". After Hemby corrected him, the two thought that they should write a song called "Pontoon". "Pontoon" is a mid-tempo song about having a party while on a pontoon. The song is in A major, with an A-D-A pattern twice on the verses, and A-D-A-E-A on the chorus. Karen Fairchild's lead vocal ranges from E3 to A4. It has an approximate tempo of 96 beats per minute. Billy Dukes of "Taste of Country" gave the song three and a half stars out of five, writing that "those who