Pl. têtes de pont. (Fr., lit. ‘bridge head.’] A fortification defending the approach to a bridge; a bridge-head.
1794. Amer. St. Papers, Mil. Affairs (1832), I. 89. There ought to be … close to the chain, a small tete de pont.
1812. Examiner, 31 Aug., 519/2. One bridge upon the Beressina, with double têtes-de-pont.
1829. Scott, Anne of G., ix. They were not long of discovering the tête-du-pont on which the drawbridge, when lowered, had formerly rested.
