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Glite Dictionary
trestle bridge

trestle bridge

1 7.0
A bridge made of short sections that rest on many supports
  • noun
  • /ˈtrɛsəl brɪdʒ/
  • Specialized
translation icon : puente de caballetes
  • We hiked along the trail until we reached the wooden trestle bridge overlooking the valley.

Examples

  • The old trestle bridge spans the river, providing a scenic view of the countryside.

  • Trains pass regularly over the sturdy trestle bridge, connecting the small towns on either side.

  • The boys skip rocks and start across a trestle bridge.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • The old trestle bridge.

    Jason's Lyric (1994)

Synonyms

bridge
vstrestle bridge
∞ 1.0

A structure built across water, like a river, to carry people or vehicles

uses many short spans supported by closely spaced transverse frames

Surface Forms

trestle bridge singular
trestle bridges plural

Morphology

trestle + bridge

The meaning 'a bridge supported by trestles' is directly and compositionally derived from 'trestle' (a supporting frame) + 'bridge' (a span allowing crossing). This is a regular noun–noun compound following productive English compounding patterns, so a learner who knows both constituents can infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

The noun trestle bridge comes from the word trestle, a simple frame or stand used to hold things up, and builders used many of these frames close together to carry a path or railway in short sections. That's why trestle bridge means a bridge made of many close supports.