One-forty-eighth scale US Navy Landing Pontoon 2x30 Causeway
notes: label: Description
content: A 1/48 scale model of a 2x30 pontoon causeway composed of US Navy T-6 and T-7 landing pontoons. The model is made of small wood blocks held together with thin steel, small finishing nails, nuts and bolts. The entire model is painted slate grey.
label: Description
content: The model most likely dates to 1943. For a planned invasion of the island of Sicily, the US Navy needed to overcome the gentle slope of the seafloor off of the island that would cause LSTs and other support vessels to bottom out approximately 300 feet from the shoreline. Examining the situation, Captain John N. Laycock, CEC, determined that pontoon strings of 175 feet could be constructed with sufficient strength to handle vehicular movement. By overlapping two such strings, a floating causeway could be assembled of 300 feet in length able to reach from the Landing Ship, Tank (LST) ramp to the shoreline for vehicles to drive from ship to shore without incident. The causeways worked exactly as planned and proved a boon to the success of the Allied landings.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Military and Society: Armed Forces History, Naval
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Mildred Cole Laycock
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2019.0105.06
label: catalog number
content: 2019.0105.06
label: accession number
content: 2019.0105
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Model
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: Wood, Steel, Paint (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 43 11/16 in x 4 in x 1 5/16 in; 110.96625 cm x 10.16 cm x 3.33375 cm