a passage across a river for troops,
are constructed with boats, pontoons, casks, trusses, trestles, &c.
Bridge in steam-vessels is the connection between the paddle-boxes, from
which the officer in charge directs the motion of the vessel. Also, the
middle part of the fire-bars in a marine boiler, on either side of which
the fires are banked. Also, a narrow ridge of rock, sand, or shingle,
across the bottom of a channel, so as to occasion a shoal over which the
tide ripples. That between Mount Edgecombe and St. Nicholas' Isle, at
Plymouth, has occasioned much loss of life.

BRIDGE-ISLET. A portion of land which becomes insular at high-water--as
Old Woman's Isle at Bombay, and among others, the celebrated
Lindisfarne, thus _tidally_ sung by Scott:--

"The tide did now his flood-mark gain,
And girdled in the saint's domain:
For, with the flow and ebb, its style
Varies from continent to isle;
Dry-shod, o'er sands, twice ev'ry day
The pilgrims to the shrine find way;
Twice every day the waves efface
Of staves and sandall'd feet the trace."

BRIDGE-TRAIN. An equipment for insuring the passage of troops over a
river. Pontooners. (_See_ PONTOON.)

BRIDLE. _See_ MOORING-BRIDLE and BOWLINE-BRIDLE.

BRIDLE-PORT. A square port in the bows of a ship, for taking in mooring
bridles. They are also used for guns removed from the port abaft, and
required to fire as near a line ahead as possible. They are main-deck
chase-ports.

BRIDLES. The upper part of the moorings laid in the queen's harbours, to
ride ships or vessels of war. (_See_ MOORINGS.)

BRIG. A two-masted square-rigged vessel, without a square main-sail, or
a trysail-mast abaft the main-mast. This properly constituted the snow,
but both classes are latterly blended, and the terms therefore
synonymous.

BRIGADE. A party or body of men detached for a special service. A
division of troops under the command of a general officer. In artillery
organization on land, a brigade is a force usually composed of more than
a battery; in the field it commonly consists of two or three batteries;
on paper, and for administrative purposes, of eight.

BRIGADE-MAJOR. A staff officer attached to a brigade, and is the channel
through which all orders are received from the general and communicated
to the troops.

BRIGADE-ORDERS. Those issued by the general officer commanding troops
which are brigaded.

BRIGADIER. An officer commanding a brigade, and