the.com/bridgehead
the toehold on the wrong side of the river that decides whole wars
means A fortified position established on the enemy's side of a river, beach, or other barrier, secured to protect the crossing and allow further forces to advance.
from A military compound stitched together in English from "bridge" and "head" — "head" here in its old sense of "the leading or fore part, the end" (think of the head of a column, the head of a pier). The term likely drew on the French "tête de pont," literally "head of bridge," describing the fortifications planted at the far end of a bridge to hold the crossing. By extension it came to mean any foothold seized beyond a barrier, with "beachhead" arriving later as the watery cousin for amphibious landings.
- origin
- From defending the far end of a bridge
- d-day
- Beaches were bridgeheads bought in blood by thousands
- business slang
- Now means your first foothold in a market
- vulnerable
- Hardest to take, brutal to hold, fatal to lose
- remagen
- One captured bridge sped the Allied push into Germany
remagen bridgehead — us first army's crossing of rhine river in march 1945, held against german counterattacks for 10 days
normandy bridgehead — allied foothold established june 6, 1944 after d-day landings in normandy, france
gela bridgehead — us seventh army's sicily landing july 1943 under general patton, breakthrough point in operation husky