  A cylindrical flexible cable made up of pure fluid water can be
experimentally spanned across a spatial gap with cable endpoints fixed to the
top edges of two glass beakers. The cable has been called a water bridge in
close analogy to iron cables employed to build ordinary span bridges. A
necessary condition for the construction of a water bridge is that a large
electric field exists parallel to and located within the water cable.
Presently, there is no accepted detailed theory which quantitatively explains
the forces which hold up the bridge. Our purpose is to present such theory
based on the Maxwell pressure tensor induced by the electric field albeit
within the condensed matter dielectric fluid cable.
