  We consider the thermodynamics of a horizon surface from the viewpoint of the
vacuum tension $\tau =(c^4/4G )$. Numerically, $\tau \approx 3.026\times
10^{43}$ Newton. In order of magnitude, this is the tension that has been
proposed for microscopic string models of gravity. However, after decades of
hard work on string theory models of gravity, there is no firm scientific
evidence that such models of gravity apply empirically. Our purpose is thereby
to discuss the gravitational tension in terms of the conventional Einstein
general theory of relativity that apparently does explain much and maybe all of
presently known experimental gravity data. The central result is that matter on
the horizon surface is bound by the entropy-area law by tension in the closely
analogous sense that the Wilson action-area law also describes a surface
confinement.
