New Bridge Road is a one-way road

Road

A road is a thoroughfare, route, or way on land between two places, which typically has been paved or otherwise improved to allow travel by some conveyance, including a horse, cart, or motor vehicle. Roads consist of one, or sometimes two, roadways each with one or more lanes and also any...

 located within the Central Area

Central Area

In Singapore, the Central Area or Central Business District contains the core financial and commercial districts, including eleven urban planning areas, namely Downtown Core, Marina East, Marina South, Museum, Newton, Orchard, Outram, River Valley, Rochor, Singapore River and Straits View as...

 in Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

.

New Bridge Road starts at the Coleman Bridge

Coleman Bridge, Singapore

Coleman Bridge is a vehicular bridge in Singapore. The bridge links Hill Street and New Bridge Road, spanning the Singapore River near Clarke Quay...

 to the south of the Singapore River

Singapore River

The Singapore River is a river in Singapore with great historical importance. The Singapore River flows from the Central Area, which lies in the Central Region in the southern part of Singapore before emptying into the ocean...

 and extends into Chinatown

Chinatown, Singapore

Singapore's Chinatown is an ethnic neighbourhood featuring distinctly Chinese cultural elements and a historically concentrated ethnic Chinese population. Chinatown is located within the larger district of Outram....

 within the Outram Planning Area

Outram, Singapore

Outram is a district in Singapore, within the Central Area, relatively near the prominent city centre and financial districts, but is nearer the border of the Central Area, and outside the Downtown Core. Outram is served by extensive public transport, including SBS Transit and a Mass Rapid Transit ...

, before joining with Eu Tong Sen Street

Eu Tong Sen Street

Eu Tong Sen Street is a one-way road located in the central part of Singapore in the planning areas of Outram, Singapore River and Bukit Merah...

 and Kampong Bahru Road within the Bukit Merah Planning Area

Bukit Merah

Bukit Merah is a hill in Singapore. Previously, it was a much larger hill that was situated at the present site of Henderson housing estate, which lies opposite the Delta Sports Complex. There was a Chinese cemetery on the reverse side of the hill. The present Bukit Merah Secondary School and...

. The road runs parallel

Parallel (geometry)

Parallelism is a term in geometry and in everyday life that refers to a property in Euclidean space of two or more lines or planes, or a combination of these. The assumed existence and properties of parallel lines are the basis of Euclid's parallel postulate. Two lines in a plane that do not...

 to Eu Tong Sen Street throughout its entire length, but in the opposite direction.

Etymology and history

New Bridge Road was built in 1842, after George Drumgoole Coleman

George Drumgoole Coleman

George Drumgoole Coleman , also known as George Drumgold Coleman, was an Irish civil architect who played an instrumental role in the design and construction of much of the civil infrastructure in Singapore, after the island was founded by Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819.Born in Drogheda County Louth,...

's new bridge

Bridge

A bridge is a structure built to span physical obstacles such as a body of water, valley, or road, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle...

, Coleman Bridge, had been built in 1840 over the Singapore River. The bridge links Hill Street

Hill Street

Hill Street is a street in the downtown of Singapore starting from Eu Tong Sen Street and ending at Stamford Road, where the road becomes Victoria Street...

 on the north bank of the Singapore River with New Bridge Road on the south bank of the river.

The Chinese

Chinese people

The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....

 used to call this road sin pa sat ma chu cheng in Hokkien

Min Nan

The Southern Min languages, or Min Nan , are a family of Chinese languages spoken in southern Fujian, eastern Guangdong, Hainan, Taiwan, and southern Zhejiang provinces of China, and by descendants of emigrants from these areas in diaspora....

, or "front of the new market

Market

A market is one of many varieties of systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby parties engage in exchange. While parties may exchange goods and services by barter, most markets rely on sellers offering their goods or services in exchange for money from buyers...

 police station

Police station

A police station or station house is a building which serves to accommodate police officers and other members of staff. These buildings often contain offices and accommodation for personnel and vehicles, along with locker rooms, temporary holding cells and interview/interrogation rooms.- Facilities...

" and ji ma lo, or "number two horse

Horse

The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...

 way". The Hokkiens

Hoklo people

The Hoklo people are Han Chinese people whose traditional Ancestral homes are in southern Fujian of South China...

 also refer to it as gu chia chui, meaning "Kreta Ayer".

The fruit

Fruit

In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...

 and vegetable

Vegetable

The noun vegetable usually means an edible plant or part of a plant other than a sweet fruit or seed. This typically means the leaf, stem, or root of a plant....

 trade

Trade

Trade is the transfer of ownership of goods and services from one person or entity to another. Trade is sometimes loosely called commerce or financial transaction or barter. A network that allows trade is called a market. The original form of trade was barter, the direct exchange of goods and...

 found at New Bridge Road and Wayang Street (now a part of Eu Tong Sen Street) was dominated by the Teochews

Teochew people

The Chaozhou people are Han people, native to the Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong province of China who speak the Teochew dialect. Today, most Teochew people live outside China in Southeast Asia especially in Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia. They can also be found almost anywhere in the...

. The Teochews also dominated some sections of the inter-island boat

Boat

A boat is a watercraft of any size designed to float or plane, to provide passage across water. Usually this water will be inland or in protected coastal areas. However, boats such as the whaleboat were designed to be operated from a ship in an offshore environment. In naval terms, a boat is a...

 trade, dealing especially with West Borneo

Borneo

Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....

 and Siam where there were substantial Teochew trading communities. Hence many of the leading Teochew entrepot

Entrepôt

An entrepôt is a trading post where merchandise can be imported and exported without paying import duties, often at a profit. This profit is possible because of trade conditions, for example, the reluctance of ships to travel the entire length of a long trading route, and selling to the entrepôt...

 traders were located around the Singapore River, especially in New Bridge Road, north of Hong Lim Park, and its vicinity, namely the Upper Circular Road, Carpenter Street, Ellenborough Street and Hong Kong Street areas.