Pontoon bridge innovation, in 1708 a Swedish army used a leather pontoon bridge to cross a river before the Battle of Holowczyn French general Jean Lannes's troops built a pontoon bridge to cross the Po river prior to the Battle of Montebello (1800). Napoleon's Grande Armée made extensive use of pontoon bridges at the battles of Aspern-Essling and Wagram under the supervision of General Henri Gatien Bertrand. General Jean Baptiste Eblé's engineers erected four pontoon bridges in a single night across the Dnieper during the Battle of Smolensk (1812). Working in cold water, Eblé's Dutch engineers constructed a 100-meter-long pontoon bridge during
Pontoon Beach, Illinois Mississippi River from Pontoon Beach. Pontoon Beach, Illinois Pontoon Beach is a village in Madison County, Illinois, United States. The population was 5,836 at the 2010 census. Pontoon Beach is located at (38.726078, -90.060505). According to the 2010 census, Pontoon Beach has a total area of , of which (or 79.75%) is land and (or 20.25%) is water. As of the census of 2000, there were 5,620 people, 2,134 households, and 1,519 families residing in the village. The population density was 686.9 people per square mile (265.3/km²). There were 2,341 housing units at an average density of 286.1 per square