Wednesday, November 26, 2014

The Howrah Bridge.





The bridge that never tires.
This first picture of mine is about the most iconic monument in Kolkata and the one that bring a wave of nostalgia in our body, The Howrah Bridge.
Camera: Canon EOS 1200D. Aperture: f/10.0. Shutter Speed: 1/250s. Focal length: 55mm. ISO: 100.
Howrah Bridge, located over the Hoogli River in West Bengal, India, is said to be the busiest bridge of the world. It got its name owing to the fact that it connects the city of Howrah to Calcutta. Hawrah Bridge in Kolkata, India, also known by the name ‘Rabindra Setu’, was set up in 1874. It stands on two 270 feet high pillars. Calcutta Howrah Bridge is a cantilever truss bridge that was constructed without using any nuts and bolts. Though, earlier it had a tram route, but presently, it is serving mainly as a Road Bridge. Howrah bridge has got two sister bridges also, namely, Vidyasagar Setu and the Vivekananda Setu that are situated at different points over the hoogly river. This bridge acts as an important symbol of Kolkata.
INTERESTING FACTS AND INFORMATIONS ABOUT THE HOWRAH BRIDGE
  • The design of the bridge was made by Rendel, Palmer and Tritton and the bridge was constructed by Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company. The bridge is maintained by Kolkata Port Trust.
  • Howrah Bridge ranks 6th among the cantilever suspension type bridges. At the time of construction its rank was 3rd.
  • The construction of bridge was started on 1936 and ended in 1942. It was opened for the public transport on 3 Feb 1943.
  • After the name of Rabindranath Tagore (first Asian Nobel laureate), On 14 June 1965 the bridge was renamed to Rabindra Setu.
  • The bridge was made by steel and one of the suppliers of steel was Tata Steel. It consumed about 26,500 tons of steel. An amazing thing about the bridge is that no bolts and nuts were used in this bridge. The structure was made by riveting the steel.
  • The length of the bridge is 705 meter and width is 71 ft with two footpaths of 15 ft on either side.
  • It carries a large number of traffic daily. About 1 million vehicles and 1.5 pedestrians use it. It is the busiest cantilever bridge in the world. Though the first vehicle to use it was a tram, from 1993 trams were stopped from using it to reduce the load.

0 comments:

Post a Comment