Howrah Bridge
Encyclopedia
The Howrah Bridge is a cantilever bridge
that spans the Hooghly River in West Bengal
, India
. Commissioned in 1943, the bridge was originally named the New Howrah Bridge, because it links the city of Howrah to its twin city, Kolkata
(Calcutta). On 14 June 1965 it was renamed Rabindra Setu, after Rabindranath Tagore
a great Bengal
poet and the first Indian Nobel laureate
. However it is still popularly known as the Howrah Bridge.
The bridge is one of the four on the Hooghly River and is a famous symbol of Kolkata
and West Bengal
. The other bridges are the Vidyasagar Setu
(popularly called the Second Hooghly Bridge), the Vivekananda Setu
and the newly built Nivedita Setu
. Apart from bearing the stormy weather of the Bay of Bengal
region, it successfully bears the weight of a daily traffic
of approximately 100,000 vehicles along Howrah Bridge and possibly more than 150,000 pedestrians, easily making it the busiest cantilever bridge in the world. The third longest cantilever bridge at the time of its construction, it is currently the sixth longest bridge of its type in the world.
, Chief Engineer of the East India Railway Company to study the feasibility of bridging the Hooghly River — he had recently established the company's rail terminus in Howrah. He reported on 29 March with large-scale drawings and estimates that:
The bridge was not built.
In face of the increasing traffic across the Hooghly river, a committee was appointed in 1855-56 to oversee the possibilities of constructing a bridge across it. However the plan was shelved in 1859-60, to be revived in 1868, when it was decided that a bridge should be constructed and a newly appointed trust should be vested with its responsibility. The Kolkata Port Trust was founded in 1870, and the Legislative department of the then Government of Bengal passed the Howrah Bridge Act in the year 1871 under the Bengal Act IX of 1871,,empowering the Lieutenant-Governor to have the bridge constructed with Government capital under the aegis of the Port Commissioners. Eventually a contract was signed with Sir Bradford Leslie to construct a pontoon bridge
, and work commenced, the different parts being constructed in England
and sent to Kolkata to be assembled together. The assembling period was fraught with problems. The bridge was considerably damaged by the great cyclone on 20th March, 1874. A steamer named Egeria broke from her moorings and collided head-on with the bridge, sinking three pontoons and damaging nearly 200 feet of the bridge. The bridge was completed in 1874, at a total cost of 22 lakhs, and opened to traffic on 17 October
of that year. The bridge was then 1528 ft. long and 62 ft. wide, with 7 foot wide pavements on either side. Initially the bridge used to be periodically unfastened to allow steamers and other marine vehicles to pass through. Before 1906, the bridge used to be undone for the passage of vessels during daytime only, but since June of that year it started opening at night for all vessels except ocean steamers, which were required to pass through during daytime. From 19th August, 1879, the bridge started being illuminated by electric lamp-posts, powered by the dynamo at the Mullick Ghat Pumping Station. However the bridge started to prove inefficient to cater to the rapidly increasing load, and the Port Commissioners started making plans for a new improved bridge in 1905.
and Mr. W.B. MacCabe, Chief Engineer, Calcutta Corporation. They submitted a report stating that
The committee considered six options:
The committee eventually decided it to be a floating bridge, and floated tenders to 23 firms for its design and construction. A prize of money £
3,000 ( 45,000, at the then exchange rate) was declared as prize money for the firm whose design would be accepted.
, although the bridge was partially renewed in 1917 and 1927. In 1921 a committee of engineers named the 'Mukherjee Committee' was formed, headed by Sir R.N. Mukherjee, Sir Clement Hindley, Chairman of Calcutta Port Trust and Mr. J. McGlashan, Chief Engineer. They referred the matter to Sir Basil Mott
, who proposed a single span arch bridge
. In 1922 the New Howrah Bridge Commission was set up, to which the Mukherjee Committee submitted its report. In 1926 the New Howrah Bridge Act passed. In 1930 the Goode Committee was formed, comprising Mr. S.W. Goode as President, Mr. S.N. Mallick, and Mr. W.H. Thompson, to investigate and report on the advisability of constructing a pier bridge between Calcutta and Howrah. Based on their recommendation, M/s. Rendel, Palmer and Tritton were asked to consider the construction of a suspension bridge
of a particular design prepared by their chief draftsman Mr. Walton. On basis of the report, a global tender was floated, and although the lowest bid came from a German company, due to the imminent World War II
and Germany's possible participation
in it, it wasn't given the contract, and instead the British firm Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company
was entrusted withe bridge construction in 1935. The same year the New Howrah Bridge Act was amended, and construction of the bridge started the next year.
. The main tower was founded with single monolith caissons
of dimensions 55.31 x 24.8 m with 21 shafts, each 6.25 metre square. The fabrication was done by Braithwaite, Burn & Jessop Construction Company
at four different shops in Kolkata. The two anchorage caissons were each 16.4 m by 8.2 m, with two wells 4.9 m square. The caissons were so designed that the working chambers within the shafts could be temporarily enclosed by steel diaphragms to allow work under compressed air if required. The caisson at Kolkata side was founded at 31.41 m and that at Howrah side at 26.53 m below ground level. One night, during the process of grabbing out the muck to enable the caisson to move, the ground below it yielded, and the entire mass plunged two feet, shaking the ground. The impact of this was so intense that the seismograph at Kidderpore
registered it as an earthquake
and a Hindu
temple
on the shore was destroyed, although it was subsequently rebuilt. It is said that while clearing the muck, all kinds of objects were brought up, including anchors, grappling irons, cannons, cannon balls, brass vessels, variety of coins dating back to the East India Company
. The job of sinking the caissons was carried out round-the-clock at a rate of a foot or more per day. The caissons were sunk through soft river deposits to a stiff yellow clay 26.5 m below ground level. The accuracy of sinking the huge caissons was exceptionally precise, within 50-75 mm of the true position. After penetrating 2.1 m into clay, all shafts were plugged with concrete
after individual dewatering with some 5 m of backfilling in adjacent shafts. The main piers
on the Howrah side were sunk by open wheel dredging, while those on the Kolkata side required compressed air to counter running sand. The air pressure maintained was about 40 lbs per square inch (2.8 bar
), which required about 500 workers to be employed. Whenever excessively soft soil was encountered, the shafts symmetrical to the caisson axes were left unexcavated to allow strict control, while in very stiff clays a large number of the internal wells were completely undercut, allowing the whole weight of the caisson to be carried by the outside skin friction and the bearing
under the external wall. Skin friction on the outside of the monolith walls was estimated at 29 kN/m2. while loads on the cutting edge in clay overlying the founding stratum reached 100 tonnes/m. The work on the foundation was completed on November 1938. By the end of 1940, the erection of the cantilevered arms was commenced and was completed in mid-summer of 1941. The two halves of the suspended span, each 282 feet (86 m) long and weighing 2,000 tons, were built in December 1941. The bridge was erected by commencing at the two anchor spans and advancing towards the center with the use of creeper cranes moving along the upper chord. 16 hydraulic jacks, each of which had an 800 ton capacity, were pressed into service to join the two halves of the suspended span.
The entire project cost 25 million (£
2,463,887). In spite of being a pioneer in the field of bridge construction, particularly in India, there was no pomp or formal opening of the bridge due to the possibility of attacks by Japanese
planes fighting the Allied Powers
. The first vehicle to use the bridge was a solitary tram
.
(549 m) and Forth Bridge
(521 m). It has since been surpassed by three more bridges, making it currently the sixth longest cantilever bridge in the world. To be precise, it is a Suspension type
Balanced Cantilever
bridge, with a central span 1500 ft between centers of main towers and a suspended span of 564 ft. The main towers are 280 ft high above the monoliths and 76 ft apart at the top. The anchor arms are 325 ft each, while the cantilever arms are 468 ft each. The bridge deck hangs from panel points in the lower chord of the main trusses
with 39 pairs of hangers. The roads way beyond the towers are supported from ground, leaving the anchor arms free from deck load. The deck system includes cross girders suspended between the pairs of hangers by a pinned connection. Six rows of longitudinal stringer girders are arranged between cross girders. Floor beams are supported transversally on top of the stringers, while themselves supporting a continuous pressed steel troughing system surfaced with concrete
. The longitudinal expansion and lateral sway movement of the deck are taken care of by expansion and articulation joints. There are two main expansion joints, one at each interface between the suspended span and the cantilever arms, and there are others at the towers and at the interface of the steel and concrete structures at both approach. There are total 8 articulation joints
, 3 at each of the cantilever arms and 1 each in the suspended portion. These joints divide the bridge into segments with vertical pin connection between them to facilitate rotational movements of the deck. The bridge deck has longitudinal ruling gradient of 1 in 40 from either end, joined by a vertical curve of radius 4000 ft. The cross gradient of deck is 1 in 48 between kerbs.
The bridge serves as the gateway to Kolkata
, connecting it to the Howrah Station
, which is one of the four intercity train stations serving Howrah and Kolkata. As such, it carries the near entirety of the traffic to and from the station, taking its average daily traffic close to nearly 1.5 million pedestrians and 1 million vehicles. In 1946 a census was taken to take a count of the daily traffic, it amounted to 27,400 vehicles, 121,100 pedestrians and 2,997 cattle. The bulk of the vehicular traffic comes from buses and cars. Prior to 1993 the bridge used to carry trams also. Trams
departed from the terminus at Howrah station towards Rajabazar
, Sealdah
, High Court
, Dalhousie Square, Park Circus
and Shyambazar
. From 1993 the tram services on the bridge were discontinued due to increasing load on the bridge. However the bridge still continues to carry much more than the expected load. A 2007 report revealed that nearly 90,000 vehicles were plying on the bridge daily (15,000 of which were goods-carrying), though its load-bearing capacity is only 60,000. One of the main reasons of overloading was that although vehicles carrying upto 15 tonnes are allowed on the structure, vehicles with 12-18 wheels and carrying load up to 25 tonnes often plied on it. May 31, 2007 onwards, overload trucks were banned from plying on the bridge, and were redirected to the Vidyasagar Setu
instead. The road is flanked by footpaths of width 15 feet, and they swarm with pedestrians.
The Kolkata Port Trust is vested with the maintenance of the bridge. The bridge has always been subject to two issues - firstly, damage from vehicles due to rash driving and secondly from the continuous corrosion due to atmospheric conditions and biological wastes. On October 2008, 6 high-tech surveillance cameras were strategically placed in such a manner that the entire 705-metre-long and 30-metre-wide structure could be constantly monitored from the control room. Two of the cameras were placed under the floor of the bridge to track the movement of barges, steamers and boats on the river, while the other four were fixed to the first layer of beams — one at each end and two in the middle — to monitor vehicle movements. This was in light of substantial damage caused to the bridge from collisions with vehicles, so that compensation could be claimed from the miscreants. Another issue is the corrosion caused by human spitting and bird droppings. An investigation in 2003 revealed that as a result of prolonged chemical reaction caused by continuous collection of bird excreta, several joints and parts of the bridge were damaged. As an immediate measure, the Kolkata Port Trust engaged contractors to regularly clean the bird droppings, at an annual expense of 5 lakhs. In 2004, KPT spent 65 lakhs to paint the entirety of 22 lakh sq. m of the bridge. Two coats of Aluminium
paint, with a primer of Zinc chromate
before that, was applied on the bridge, requiring a total of 26,500 litres of paint.
The bridge is also considerably damaged by human spitting
. A technical inspection by port trust officials in 2011 revealed that spitting had reduced the thickness of the steel hoods protecting the pillars from six to less than three millimeters since 2007. Because the bridge was designed in such a manner that the hangers need those hoods at the base to prevent water seeping into the junction of the cross-girders and hangers, damage to the hoods can jeopardize the safety of the bridge. KTP announced that it will spend 20 lakhs on covering the base of the steel pillars with fibreglass
casing to prevent spit from corroding them. On June 24, 2005, a private cargo vessel M V Mani, belonging to the Ganges Water Transport Pvt. Ltd, while trying to pass under the bridge during high tide, had its funnel stuck underneath for three hours, causing substantial damage worth about 1.5 crore to the stringer and longitudinal girder of the bridge. Some of the 40 cross-girders were also broken. Two of four trolley guides, bolted and welded with the girders, were extensively damaged. Nearly 350 of 700 metres of the track were twisted beyond repair.
. Rudyard Kipling
mentioned the bridge in City of Dreadful Night
: "Why, this is London! This is the docks. This is Imperial. This is worth coming across India to see!" The bridge has been shown in numerous films, such as Ritwik Ghatak's Bari Theke Paliye
in 1958, Satyajit Ray
's Parash Pathar
in the same year, Mrinal Sen
's Neel Akasher Neechey
in 1959, Shakti Samanta
's Amar Prem
in 1971, Mrinal Sen
's 1972 National Award
winning Bengali
film Calcutta 71
, Nicolas Klotz
's 1988 film The Bengali Night
, Roland Joffé
's 1992 English language film City of Joy
, Florian Gallenberger
's 2004 Bengali
film Shadows of Time
, Mani Ratnam
's 2004 Bollywood film Yuva
, Pradeep Sarkar
's 2005 Bollywood film Parineeta
, Subhrajit Mitra
's 2008 Bengali film Mon Amour: Shesher Kobita Revisited
, Mira Nair
's 2006 film The Namesake
, Blessy
's 2008 Malayalam Film Calcutta News
, Surya Sivakumar's 2009 Tamil film Aadhavan
and Abhik Mukhopadhyay
's 2010 Bengali film Ekti Tarar Khonje
.
Cantilever bridge
A cantilever bridge is a bridge built using cantilevers, structures that project horizontally into space, supported on only one end. For small footbridges, the cantilevers may be simple beams; however, large cantilever bridges designed to handle road or rail traffic use trusses built from...
that spans the Hooghly River in West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. Commissioned in 1943, the bridge was originally named the New Howrah Bridge, because it links the city of Howrah to its twin city, Kolkata
Kolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
(Calcutta). On 14 June 1965 it was renamed Rabindra Setu, after Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore , sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath who reshaped his region's literature and music. Author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he became the first non-European Nobel laureate by earning the 1913 Prize in Literature...
a great Bengal
Bengali people
The Bengali people are an ethnic community native to the historic region of Bengal in South Asia. They speak Bengali , which is an Indo-Aryan language of the eastern Indian subcontinent, evolved from the Magadhi Prakrit and Sanskrit languages. In their native language, they are referred to as বাঙালী...
poet and the first Indian Nobel laureate
Nobel Prize in Literature
Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...
. However it is still popularly known as the Howrah Bridge.
The bridge is one of the four on the Hooghly River and is a famous symbol of Kolkata
Kolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
and West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...
. The other bridges are the Vidyasagar Setu
Vidyasagar Setu
Vidyasagar Setu, also known as the Second Hooghly Bridge, is a bridge over the Hooghly River in West Bengal, India. It links the city of Kolkata to Howrah. The bridge is a toll bridge for all vehicles. At a total length of 822.96 m, it is the longest cable-stayed bridge in India and one of the...
(popularly called the Second Hooghly Bridge), the Vivekananda Setu
Vivekananda Setu
Vivekananda Setu is a bridge over the Hooghly River in West Bengal, India. It links the city of Howrah, at Bally, to its twin city of Kolkata, at Dakshineswar. Built in December 1932, it is a multispan steel bridge and was built to provide road cum rail link between the Calcutta Port and its...
and the newly built Nivedita Setu
Nivedita Setu
Nivedita Setu is a cable-stayed bridge over Hooghly River that runs parallel to and around 50 m downstream of the old Vivekananda Setu opened in 1932...
. Apart from bearing the stormy weather of the Bay of Bengal
Bay of Bengal
The Bay of Bengal , the largest bay in the world, forms the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. It resembles a triangle in shape, and is bordered mostly by the Eastern Coast of India, southern coast of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to the west and Burma and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to the...
region, it successfully bears the weight of a daily traffic
Traffic
Traffic on roads may consist of pedestrians, ridden or herded animals, vehicles, streetcars and other conveyances, either singly or together, while using the public way for purposes of travel...
of approximately 100,000 vehicles along Howrah Bridge and possibly more than 150,000 pedestrians, easily making it the busiest cantilever bridge in the world. The third longest cantilever bridge at the time of its construction, it is currently the sixth longest bridge of its type in the world.
1862 Proposal by Turnbull
In 1862, the Government of Bengal asked George TurnbullGeorge Turnbull (civil engineer)
George Turnbull was the Chief Engineer responsible for construction from 1851 to 1863 of the first railway line from Calcutta : the 541-mile line to Benares en route to Delhi...
, Chief Engineer of the East India Railway Company to study the feasibility of bridging the Hooghly River — he had recently established the company's rail terminus in Howrah. He reported on 29 March with large-scale drawings and estimates that:
- The foundations for a bridge at Calcutta would be at a considerable depth and cost because of the depth of the mud there.
- The impediment to shipping would be considerable.
- A good place for the bridge was at Pulta Ghat "about a dozen miles north of Calcutta" where a "bed of stiff clay existed at no great depth under the river bed".
- A suspended-girder bridge of five spans of 400 feet and two spans of 200 feet would be ideal.
The bridge was not built.
Pontoon Bridge
Pontoon bridge
A pontoon bridge or floating bridge is a bridge that floats on water and in which barge- or boat-like pontoons support the bridge deck and its dynamic loads. While pontoon bridges are usually temporary structures, some are used for long periods of time...
, and work commenced, the different parts being constructed in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and sent to Kolkata to be assembled together. The assembling period was fraught with problems. The bridge was considerably damaged by the great cyclone on 20th March, 1874. A steamer named Egeria broke from her moorings and collided head-on with the bridge, sinking three pontoons and damaging nearly 200 feet of the bridge. The bridge was completed in 1874, at a total cost of 22 lakhs, and opened to traffic on 17 October
October
October is the tenth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian Calendars and one of seven months with a length of 31 days. The eighth month in the old Roman calendar, October retained its name after January and February were inserted into the calendar that had originally been created by the...
of that year. The bridge was then 1528 ft. long and 62 ft. wide, with 7 foot wide pavements on either side. Initially the bridge used to be periodically unfastened to allow steamers and other marine vehicles to pass through. Before 1906, the bridge used to be undone for the passage of vessels during daytime only, but since June of that year it started opening at night for all vessels except ocean steamers, which were required to pass through during daytime. From 19th August, 1879, the bridge started being illuminated by electric lamp-posts, powered by the dynamo at the Mullick Ghat Pumping Station. However the bridge started to prove inefficient to cater to the rapidly increasing load, and the Port Commissioners started making plans for a new improved bridge in 1905.
Plans for a New Bridge
In 1906 the Port Commission appointed a committee headed by Mr. R.S. Highet, Chief Engineer, East Indian RailwayEast Indian Railway Company
The East Indian Railway Company, later known as the East Indian Railway , introduced railways to eastern and northern India, while the Companies such as the Great Indian Peninsular Railway, South Indian Railway, Central India Railway and the North-Western Railway operated in other parts of India...
and Mr. W.B. MacCabe, Chief Engineer, Calcutta Corporation. They submitted a report stating that
The committee considered six options:
- Large ferry steamers capable of carrying vehicular load (set up cost 9 lakhs, annual cost 4.37 lakhs)
- A transporters bridge (set up cost 20 lakhs)
- A tunnel (set up cost 33.82 crores, annual maintenance cost 17.79 lakhs)
- A bridge on piers (set up cost 225 lakhs)
- A floating bridge (set up cost 21.40 lakhs, annual maintenance cost Rs. 2 lakhs)
- An arched bridge
The committee eventually decided it to be a floating bridge, and floated tenders to 23 firms for its design and construction. A prize of money £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
3,000 ( 45,000, at the then exchange rate) was declared as prize money for the firm whose design would be accepted.
Planning and Estimation
The initial construction process of the bridge was stalled due to the World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, although the bridge was partially renewed in 1917 and 1927. In 1921 a committee of engineers named the 'Mukherjee Committee' was formed, headed by Sir R.N. Mukherjee, Sir Clement Hindley, Chairman of Calcutta Port Trust and Mr. J. McGlashan, Chief Engineer. They referred the matter to Sir Basil Mott
Basil Mott
Sir Basil Mott, 1st Baronet FRS was one of the most notable English civil engineers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was responsible for some of the most innovative work on tunnels and bridges in the United Kingdom in the 40-year period centred on World War I.Basil Mott was born in...
, who proposed a single span arch bridge
Arch bridge
An arch bridge is a bridge with abutments at each end shaped as a curved arch. Arch bridges work by transferring the weight of the bridge and its loads partially into a horizontal thrust restrained by the abutments at either side...
. In 1922 the New Howrah Bridge Commission was set up, to which the Mukherjee Committee submitted its report. In 1926 the New Howrah Bridge Act passed. In 1930 the Goode Committee was formed, comprising Mr. S.W. Goode as President, Mr. S.N. Mallick, and Mr. W.H. Thompson, to investigate and report on the advisability of constructing a pier bridge between Calcutta and Howrah. Based on their recommendation, M/s. Rendel, Palmer and Tritton were asked to consider the construction of a suspension bridge
Suspension bridge
A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck is hung below suspension cables on vertical suspenders. Outside Tibet and Bhutan, where the first examples of this type of bridge were built in the 15th century, this type of bridge dates from the early 19th century...
of a particular design prepared by their chief draftsman Mr. Walton. On basis of the report, a global tender was floated, and although the lowest bid came from a German company, due to the imminent World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and Germany's possible participation
History of Germany during World War II
The history of Germany during World War II closely parallels that of Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler. He came to power in Germany in 1933. From that point onward, Germany followed a policy of rearmament and confrontation with other countries...
in it, it wasn't given the contract, and instead the British firm Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company
Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company
The Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company is a renowned bridge building and structural engineering company based in Darlington, England. It has been involved in many major projects including the Victoria Falls Bridge and the Humber Bridge.-History:...
was entrusted withe bridge construction in 1935. The same year the New Howrah Bridge Act was amended, and construction of the bridge started the next year.
Construction
The bridge is spectacular in the sense that it doesn't have nuts and bolts., but formed by riveting the whole structure. It consumed 26,500 tons of steel, out of which 23,000 tons of high-tensile alloy steel, known as Tiscrom, were supplied by Tata SteelTata Steel
Tata Steel is a multinational steel company headquartered in Jamshedpur, India and part of Tata Group. It is the world's seventh-largest steel company, with an annual crude steel capacity of 31 million tonnes, and the largest private-sector steel company in India measured by domestic production...
. The main tower was founded with single monolith caissons
Caisson (engineering)
In geotechnical engineering, a caisson is a retaining, watertight structure used, for example, to work on the foundations of a bridge pier, for the construction of a concrete dam, or for the repair of ships. These are constructed such that the water can be pumped out, keeping the working...
of dimensions 55.31 x 24.8 m with 21 shafts, each 6.25 metre square. The fabrication was done by Braithwaite, Burn & Jessop Construction Company
Braithwaite, Burn & Jessop Construction Company
Braithwaite, Burn & Jessop Construction Company Limited is a Public Sector Undertaking of the Government of India. Established in the 1930s, BBJ Construction Company has been involved in the construction and maintenance of many of India's rail and river bridges...
at four different shops in Kolkata. The two anchorage caissons were each 16.4 m by 8.2 m, with two wells 4.9 m square. The caissons were so designed that the working chambers within the shafts could be temporarily enclosed by steel diaphragms to allow work under compressed air if required. The caisson at Kolkata side was founded at 31.41 m and that at Howrah side at 26.53 m below ground level. One night, during the process of grabbing out the muck to enable the caisson to move, the ground below it yielded, and the entire mass plunged two feet, shaking the ground. The impact of this was so intense that the seismograph at Kidderpore
Kidderpore
Khidirpur or Kidderpore is a neighbourhood of metropolitan Kolkata . Located in the central-west part of the city, it is bounded by the districts of Alipore in the east, Ekbalpore in the south, Hastings in the north, Metiabruz in the south-west and the Hooghly River in the west.-History:One of the...
registered it as an earthquake
Earthquake
An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...
and a Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
temple
Temple
A temple is a structure reserved for religious or spiritual activities, such as prayer and sacrifice, or analogous rites. A templum constituted a sacred precinct as defined by a priest, or augur. It has the same root as the word "template," a plan in preparation of the building that was marked out...
on the shore was destroyed, although it was subsequently rebuilt. It is said that while clearing the muck, all kinds of objects were brought up, including anchors, grappling irons, cannons, cannon balls, brass vessels, variety of coins dating back to the East India Company
East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
. The job of sinking the caissons was carried out round-the-clock at a rate of a foot or more per day. The caissons were sunk through soft river deposits to a stiff yellow clay 26.5 m below ground level. The accuracy of sinking the huge caissons was exceptionally precise, within 50-75 mm of the true position. After penetrating 2.1 m into clay, all shafts were plugged with concrete
Concrete
Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...
after individual dewatering with some 5 m of backfilling in adjacent shafts. The main piers
Pier
A pier is a raised structure, including bridge and building supports and walkways, over water, typically supported by widely spread piles or pillars...
on the Howrah side were sunk by open wheel dredging, while those on the Kolkata side required compressed air to counter running sand. The air pressure maintained was about 40 lbs per square inch (2.8 bar
Bar (unit)
The bar is a unit of pressure equal to 100 kilopascals, and roughly equal to the atmospheric pressure on Earth at sea level. Other units derived from the bar are the megabar , kilobar , decibar , centibar , and millibar...
), which required about 500 workers to be employed. Whenever excessively soft soil was encountered, the shafts symmetrical to the caisson axes were left unexcavated to allow strict control, while in very stiff clays a large number of the internal wells were completely undercut, allowing the whole weight of the caisson to be carried by the outside skin friction and the bearing
Bearing (mechanical)
A bearing is a device to allow constrained relative motion between two or more parts, typically rotation or linear movement. Bearings may be classified broadly according to the motions they allow and according to their principle of operation as well as by the directions of applied loads they can...
under the external wall. Skin friction on the outside of the monolith walls was estimated at 29 kN/m2. while loads on the cutting edge in clay overlying the founding stratum reached 100 tonnes/m. The work on the foundation was completed on November 1938. By the end of 1940, the erection of the cantilevered arms was commenced and was completed in mid-summer of 1941. The two halves of the suspended span, each 282 feet (86 m) long and weighing 2,000 tons, were built in December 1941. The bridge was erected by commencing at the two anchor spans and advancing towards the center with the use of creeper cranes moving along the upper chord. 16 hydraulic jacks, each of which had an 800 ton capacity, were pressed into service to join the two halves of the suspended span.
The entire project cost 25 million (£
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
2,463,887). In spite of being a pioneer in the field of bridge construction, particularly in India, there was no pomp or formal opening of the bridge due to the possibility of attacks by Japanese
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
planes fighting the Allied Powers
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
. The first vehicle to use the bridge was a solitary tram
Calcutta Tramways Company
The Calcutta Tramways Company Limited is a West Bengal, India government-run company which runs trams in Kolkata and buses in and around Kolkata...
.
Specifications
When commissioned in 1943, it was the 3rd longest cantilever bridge in the world, behind Pont de QuébecQuebec Bridge
right|thumb|Lifting the centre span in place was considered to be a major engineering achievement. Photo caption from [[Popular Mechanics]] Magazine, December 1917...
(549 m) and Forth Bridge
Forth Bridge (railway)
The Forth Bridge is a cantilever railway bridge over the Firth of Forth in the east of Scotland, to the east of the Forth Road Bridge, and 14 kilometres west of central Edinburgh. It was opened on 4 March 1890, and spans a total length of...
(521 m). It has since been surpassed by three more bridges, making it currently the sixth longest cantilever bridge in the world. To be precise, it is a Suspension type
Suspension bridge
A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck is hung below suspension cables on vertical suspenders. Outside Tibet and Bhutan, where the first examples of this type of bridge were built in the 15th century, this type of bridge dates from the early 19th century...
Balanced Cantilever
Cantilever bridge
A cantilever bridge is a bridge built using cantilevers, structures that project horizontally into space, supported on only one end. For small footbridges, the cantilevers may be simple beams; however, large cantilever bridges designed to handle road or rail traffic use trusses built from...
bridge, with a central span 1500 ft between centers of main towers and a suspended span of 564 ft. The main towers are 280 ft high above the monoliths and 76 ft apart at the top. The anchor arms are 325 ft each, while the cantilever arms are 468 ft each. The bridge deck hangs from panel points in the lower chord of the main trusses
Truss
In architecture and structural engineering, a truss is a structure comprising one or more triangular units constructed with straight members whose ends are connected at joints referred to as nodes. External forces and reactions to those forces are considered to act only at the nodes and result in...
with 39 pairs of hangers. The roads way beyond the towers are supported from ground, leaving the anchor arms free from deck load. The deck system includes cross girders suspended between the pairs of hangers by a pinned connection. Six rows of longitudinal stringer girders are arranged between cross girders. Floor beams are supported transversally on top of the stringers, while themselves supporting a continuous pressed steel troughing system surfaced with concrete
Concrete
Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...
. The longitudinal expansion and lateral sway movement of the deck are taken care of by expansion and articulation joints. There are two main expansion joints, one at each interface between the suspended span and the cantilever arms, and there are others at the towers and at the interface of the steel and concrete structures at both approach. There are total 8 articulation joints
Articulation (architecture)
Articulation, in art and architecture, is a method of styling the joints in the formal elements of architectural design. Through degrees of articulation, each part is united with the whole work by means of a joint in such a way that the joined parts are put together in styles ranging from...
, 3 at each of the cantilever arms and 1 each in the suspended portion. These joints divide the bridge into segments with vertical pin connection between them to facilitate rotational movements of the deck. The bridge deck has longitudinal ruling gradient of 1 in 40 from either end, joined by a vertical curve of radius 4000 ft. The cross gradient of deck is 1 in 48 between kerbs.
Traffic
| Traffic Flow for fast moving heavy vehicles | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Trams | Buses/Vans | Trucks |
| 1959 | 13% | 41% | 46% |
| 1986 | 4% | 80% | 16% |
| 1990 | 3% | 82% | 15% |
| 1992 | 2% | 80% | 18% |
| 1999 | - | 89% | 11% |
| Traffic Flow for fast moving light vehicles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Two-wheelers/Autos | Cars/Taxis |
| 1959 | 2.47% | 97.53% |
| 1986 | 24% | 76% |
| 1990 | 27% | 73% |
| 1992 | 26% | 74% |
| 1999 | 20% | 80% |
The bridge serves as the gateway to Kolkata
Kolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
, connecting it to the Howrah Station
Howrah station
Howrah Station is one of the four intercity train stations serving Howrah and Kolkata, India; the others are Sealdah Station, Shalimar Station and Kolkata railway station in Kolkata. Howrah is situated on the West bank of the Hooghly River, linked to Kolkata by the magnificent Howrah Bridge which...
, which is one of the four intercity train stations serving Howrah and Kolkata. As such, it carries the near entirety of the traffic to and from the station, taking its average daily traffic close to nearly 1.5 million pedestrians and 1 million vehicles. In 1946 a census was taken to take a count of the daily traffic, it amounted to 27,400 vehicles, 121,100 pedestrians and 2,997 cattle. The bulk of the vehicular traffic comes from buses and cars. Prior to 1993 the bridge used to carry trams also. Trams
Calcutta Tramways Company
The Calcutta Tramways Company Limited is a West Bengal, India government-run company which runs trams in Kolkata and buses in and around Kolkata...
departed from the terminus at Howrah station towards Rajabazar
Rajabazar
Rajabazar is a locality in the city of Kolkata in West Bengal, India. It is located approximately in North-Central Kolkata, between CIT Road and AJC Bose Road. The locality has grown around Narkeldanaga Main Road, now renamed as Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Sarani, which acts as a connector between CIT...
, Sealdah
Sealdah
Sealdah is one of the major train stations serving Kolkata in India, the others being Howrah Station, Shalimar Station and Kolkata Railway Station. Sealdah is one of the busiest rail stations in India and an important suburban rail terminal...
, High Court
Calcutta High Court
The Calcutta High Court is the oldest High Court in India. It was established as the High Court of Judicature at Fort William on 1 July 1862 under the High Courts Act, 1861. It has jurisdiction over the state of West Bengal and the Union Territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The High Court...
, Dalhousie Square, Park Circus
Park Circus
- Location :Park Circus is an area in South Kolkata. It has Entally and Sealdah to its north, Park Street and Chowringhee to its west, Taltala to its north west, Topsia and Ballygunge to its south & Tangra to its east. It is connected to both Park Street and AJC Bose Road. It is a locality of...
and Shyambazar
Shyambazar
Shyambazar is a neighbourhood in north Kolkata, earlier known as Calcutta, in the Indian state of West Bengal. The area, under Shyampukur police station of Kolkata Police, has been, along with neighbouring Bagbazar, the citadel of the Bengali aristocracy, in a part of what was earlier known as...
. From 1993 the tram services on the bridge were discontinued due to increasing load on the bridge. However the bridge still continues to carry much more than the expected load. A 2007 report revealed that nearly 90,000 vehicles were plying on the bridge daily (15,000 of which were goods-carrying), though its load-bearing capacity is only 60,000. One of the main reasons of overloading was that although vehicles carrying upto 15 tonnes are allowed on the structure, vehicles with 12-18 wheels and carrying load up to 25 tonnes often plied on it. May 31, 2007 onwards, overload trucks were banned from plying on the bridge, and were redirected to the Vidyasagar Setu
Vidyasagar Setu
Vidyasagar Setu, also known as the Second Hooghly Bridge, is a bridge over the Hooghly River in West Bengal, India. It links the city of Kolkata to Howrah. The bridge is a toll bridge for all vehicles. At a total length of 822.96 m, it is the longest cable-stayed bridge in India and one of the...
instead. The road is flanked by footpaths of width 15 feet, and they swarm with pedestrians.
Maintenance
Aluminium
Aluminium or aluminum is a silvery white member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al, and its atomic number is 13. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances....
paint, with a primer of Zinc chromate
Zinc chromate
Zinc chromate, ZnCrO4, is a chemical compound containing the chromate anion, appearing as odorless yellow solid powder. It is used industrially in chromate conversion coatings, having been developed by Ford Motor Company in 1920s...
before that, was applied on the bridge, requiring a total of 26,500 litres of paint.
Saliva
Saliva , referred to in various contexts as spit, spittle, drivel, drool, or slobber, is the watery substance produced in the mouths of humans and most other animals. Saliva is a component of oral fluid. In mammals, saliva is produced in and secreted from the three pairs of major salivary glands,...
. A technical inspection by port trust officials in 2011 revealed that spitting had reduced the thickness of the steel hoods protecting the pillars from six to less than three millimeters since 2007. Because the bridge was designed in such a manner that the hangers need those hoods at the base to prevent water seeping into the junction of the cross-girders and hangers, damage to the hoods can jeopardize the safety of the bridge. KTP announced that it will spend 20 lakhs on covering the base of the steel pillars with fibreglass
Fiberglass
Glass fiber is a material consisting of numerous extremely fine fibers of glass.Glassmakers throughout history have experimented with glass fibers, but mass manufacture of glass fiber was only made possible with the invention of finer machine tooling...
casing to prevent spit from corroding them. On June 24, 2005, a private cargo vessel M V Mani, belonging to the Ganges Water Transport Pvt. Ltd, while trying to pass under the bridge during high tide, had its funnel stuck underneath for three hours, causing substantial damage worth about 1.5 crore to the stringer and longitudinal girder of the bridge. Some of the 40 cross-girders were also broken. Two of four trolley guides, bolted and welded with the girders, were extensively damaged. Nearly 350 of 700 metres of the track were twisted beyond repair.
Cultural Significance
The bridge has become an iconic landmark and symbol of KolkataKolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
. Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...
mentioned the bridge in City of Dreadful Night
City of Dreadful Night
The City of Dreadful Night is a long poem by the Scottish poet James "B.V." Thomson, written between 1870 and 1873, and published in the National Reformer in 1874, then in 1880 in a book entitled The City of Dreadful Night and Other Poems....
: "Why, this is London! This is the docks. This is Imperial. This is worth coming across India to see!" The bridge has been shown in numerous films, such as Ritwik Ghatak's Bari Theke Paliye
Bari Theke Paliye
Bari Theke Paliye is a 1958 Bengali film by director Ritwik Ghatak. It stars Supriya Choudhury, Anil Chatterjee, Gita Ghatak, Bijan Bhattacharya, Niranjan Roy, and Gyanesh Mukherjee....
in 1958, Satyajit Ray
Satyajit Ray
Satyajit Ray was an Indian Bengali filmmaker. He is regarded as one of the greatest auteurs of 20th century cinema. Ray was born in the city of Kolkata into a Bengali family prominent in the world of arts and literature...
's Parash Pathar
Parash Pathar
Parash Pathar was Satyajit Ray's first film apart from the Apu Trilogy. It was also his first comedy and first magical realist film...
in the same year, Mrinal Sen
Mrinal Sen
Mrinal Sen is a Bengali Indian filmmaker. He was born on 14 May 1923, in the town of Faridpur, now in Bangladesh in a Hindu family. After finishing his high school there, he left home to come to Calcutta as a student and studied physics at the well-known Scottish Church College and at the...
's Neel Akasher Neechey
Neel Akasher Neechey
Neel Akasher Neechey is a 1959 Bengali language film directed by Mrinal Sen, starring Kali Bannerjee, Manju Dey, Bikash Roy and others....
in 1959, Shakti Samanta
Shakti Samanta
Shakti Samanta was an Indian film director and producer, who founded Shakti Films in 1957, which is most known for films like Howrah Bridge, China Town, Kashmir Ki Kali, An Evening in Paris, Kati Patang and Amar Prem.He received Filmfare Awards for Best Film for Aradhana, Anuraag and Amanush,...
's Amar Prem
Amar Prem
Amar Prem is a 1971 Hindi film directed by Shakti Samanta, based on a story by Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay and starring Sharmila Tagore, Rajesh Khanna, Vinod Mehra and Madan Puri....
in 1971, Mrinal Sen
Mrinal Sen
Mrinal Sen is a Bengali Indian filmmaker. He was born on 14 May 1923, in the town of Faridpur, now in Bangladesh in a Hindu family. After finishing his high school there, he left home to come to Calcutta as a student and studied physics at the well-known Scottish Church College and at the...
's 1972 National Award
National Film Award for Second Best Feature Film
The National Film Award for Second Best Feature Film winners :-See also:...
winning Bengali
Cinema of West Bengal
The cinema of West Bengal refers to the Tollygunge-based Bengali film industry in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. The origins of the nickname Tollywood, a portmanteau of the words Tollygunge and Hollywood, dates back to 1932...
film Calcutta 71
Calcutta 71
Calcutta 71 iss a 1972 Bengali film directed by noted Indian art film director Mrinal Sen. This film is considered to be the second film of Mrinal Sen's Calcutta trilogy, the others being Interview, and Padatik.-External links:**...
, Nicolas Klotz
Nicolas Klotz
-Filmography:*Rendez-vous avec Marguerite 1983*The Bengali Night 1988 with Hugh Grant, Shabana Azmi and Soumitra Chatterjee*La Nuit sacrée 1993 with Goran Bregović*Chants of Sand and Stars 1996*Pariah 2000*The Wound 2004*Dans la peau de.....
's 1988 film The Bengali Night
The Bengali Night
The Bengali Night is a 1988 semi-autobiographical film based upon the Mircea Eliade 1933 Romanian novel, Bengal Nights, directed by Nicolas Klotz and starring Hugh Grant and the Indian actors Soumitra Chatterjee and Shabana Azmi.-Plot summary:...
, Roland Joffé
Roland Joffé
Roland Joffé is an English-French film director who is known for his Oscar nominated movies, The Killing Fields and The Mission. He began his career in television. His early television credits included episodes of Coronation Street and an adaptation of The Stars Look Down for Granada...
's 1992 English language film City of Joy
City of Joy (film)
City of Joy is a 1992 film directed by Roland Joffé, with a screenplay by Mark Medoff. It is based upon the novel of the same name by Dominique Lapierre.-Plot:...
, Florian Gallenberger
Florian Gallenberger
Florian Gallenberger is a German film director. His film Quiero ser was awarded the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 2001.-Career:...
's 2004 Bengali
Bengali language
Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...
film Shadows of Time
Shadows of Time
Shadows of Time is a 2004 romantic Bengali language German film, shot in Calcutta, India. It is the first feature-length film of Academy Award winning director Florian Gallenberger, and stars Prashant Narayanan, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Irrfan Khan and Soumitra Chatterjee in pivotal roles.-Plot:The...
, Mani Ratnam
Mani Ratnam
Mani Ratnam is an Indian filmmaker, screenwriter and producer. He made his directorial debut with the Kannada film Pallavi Anu Pallavi starring Anil Kapoor in 1983...
's 2004 Bollywood film Yuva
Yuva
Yuva , originally titled Howrah Bridge is a feature film directed by Indian director Mani Ratnam and released in 2004. Simultaneously made in Hindi and Tamil , the prime objective of the movie was to motivate educated Indian youths to enter politics.The film tells the stories of three young men...
, Pradeep Sarkar
Pradeep Sarkar
Pradeep Sakar is a writer and director who works in the Bollywood industry.He began his career with Vinod Chopra Productions, the production company of acclaimed director Vidhu Vinod Chopra....
's 2005 Bollywood film Parineeta
Parineeta (2005 film)
Parineeta is a Bollywood musical film adaptation of the 1914 Bengali novella, Parineeta by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay. Directed by debutant Pradeep Sarkar, the film was based upon a screenplay by the film's producer, Vidhu Vinod Chopra. The film featured Vidya Balan, Saif Ali Khan and Sanjay Dutt...
, Subhrajit Mitra
Subhrajit Mitra
Subhrajit Mitra is a Bengali film documentary director of India.-Career:He started his career at the age of 18 as a documentary director for Doordarshan. At the same time he has completed his post graduate diploma in Computer science and engineering and a part time two years diploma course in...
's 2008 Bengali film Mon Amour: Shesher Kobita Revisited
Mon Amour: Shesher Kobita Revisited
Mon Amour: Shesher Kobita Revisited is a Bengali film directed by Subhrajit Mitra. The story is by Kaberi Chatterjee. The title is in French, Bengali and English...
, Mira Nair
Mira Nair
Mira Nair is an Indian film director and producer based in New York. Her production company is Mirabai Films.She was educated at Delhi University and Harvard University. Her debut feature film, Salaam Bombay! , won the Golden Camera award at the Cannes Film Festival and also earned the nomination...
's 2006 film The Namesake
The Namesake
The Namesake is the second book by author Jhumpa Lahiri. It was originally a novella published in The New Yorker and was later expanded to a full length novel. It explores many of the same emotional and cultural themes as her Pulitzer Prize-winning short story collection Interpreter of Maladies...
, Blessy
Blessy
Blessy is an Indian film director and screenwriter who has made several critically acclaimed films in Malayalam. As a film director, he is influenced by Padmarajan and Bharathan.- Career :...
's 2008 Malayalam Film Calcutta News
Calcutta News
Calcutta News is a Malayalam film written and directed by Blessy. The film stars Dileep, Meera Jasmine, Indrajith and Vimala Raman. The music is by Debojyoti Mishra. The film deals with India's ugly underbelly of trafficking in women and how a middle-class girl from Kerala gets caught in it...
, Surya Sivakumar's 2009 Tamil film Aadhavan
Aadhavan
Aadhavan is a 2009 Tamil action thriller, directed by K. S. Ravikumar and written by Ramesh Khanna. The film features Surya Sivakumar in the title role along with Nayantara in lead roles and Murali, Vadivelu, Anand Babu, Ramesh Khanna, B. Saroja Devi, Rahul Dev, Sayaji Shinde in its supporting...
and Abhik Mukhopadhyay
Abhik Mukhopadhyay
Abhik Mukhopadhyay is an Indian Bengali cinematographer.-Filmography:*Chukkallo Chandrudu *Shoonya *The Last Lear *Via Darjeeling *Khela *Antaheen *Ekti Tarar Khonje -Awards and nominations:...
's 2010 Bengali film Ekti Tarar Khonje
Ekti Tarar Khonje
Ekti Tarar Khonje is a 2010 Bengali-language film that was directed by National award winning cinematographer Abhik Mukhopadhyay. The film stars Shayan Munshi, Arpita Pal, Rudranil Ghosh, and veteran actor Dhritiman Chatterjee.-Plot:...
.
See also
- List of largest cantilever bridges
- List of longest bridges in the world
- List of longest bridges above water in India