land bridge

noun

1. Geology. an actual or hypothetical strip of land, subject to submergence, that connects adjacent continental landmasses and serves as a route of dispersal for plants and animals:

   a prehistoric land bridge between Asia and North America.

2. a transcontinental rail route between countries, as those in Europe and East Asia, considered faster and less costly than all-sea routes.

land bridge

noun

1. (in zoogeography) a connecting tract of land between two continents, enabling animals to pass from one continent to the other

Word History and Origins

Origin of land bridge¹

First recorded in 1895–1900

Example Sentences

Ireland, unlike the rest, is fairly close to a mainland and even had a land bridge that appeared roughly 10,000 years ago and connected it to what’s now the United Kingdom.

From Popular-Science

Some still support the land bridge theory, either disputing the geological evidence, or arguing that primate ancestors crossed into Africa long before the current fossil record suggests, before the continents broke up.

From Singularity Hub 

When water became locked up in expansions of ice sheets and glaciers, sea level fell, turning shallow reefs into land bridges.

From Science News

The new finding also adds to an ongoing debate about what route humans took after arriving in North America via a land bridge in Alaska.

From Science News

The Sinai is the land bridge between Africa and Asia; it is also the gateway to Gaza and Israel from Egypt.

From The Daily Beast

A little geological turnover, a swampy land bridge formed in the right spot, and the lizards began to wander up beacon valley.

From Project Gutenberg

They may have come into America across the Siberia-Alaska land bridge a million or so years ago.

From Project Gutenberg

The destruction of this old land-bridge, he thinks, must have taken place before the commencement of the Glacial period.

From Project Gutenberg

The new-comers had migrated from some centre of culture in North Africa, and appear to have crossed over the Italian land-bridge.

From Project Gutenberg

The easiest crossing to Britain was over the English Channel land-bridge.

From Project Gutenberg