Bridging times & places

Ranjita Biswas

Great bridges are not just steel and nuts structures for people who live around it. For them, it takes on another meaning, close to the heart, and a feeling of affinity defining their place in the geographical arena. Some great bridges the world over symbolise that feeling of intimacy and identity.

Iconic to the city — Howrah Bridge

Any image of Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) immediately brings the contour of the Howrah Bridge to mind. It is now celebrating its 75th birthday. Recently renamed Rabindra Setu, the bridge straddles the twin cities across the Hooghly river — Kolkata and Howrah — of the famed Howrah railway station. Thousands of people, cars and buses cross this bridge everyday. Films like Gunday, Barfi!, Love Aaj Kal, Aadhavan, City of Joy, etc. have been shot around it.

During the British rule, a pontoon bridge connected Kolkata and Howrah. The problem was that every time a ship needed to move up and down the river, dotted with ghats or river ports, some of these pontoons had to be removed. In 1874, it was decided to build a cantilever bridge in its place. Originally named New Howrah Bridge, it was officially opened to public in 1943. At that time, it was the third longest cantilever bridge in the world. Plans are on to decorate the bridge with LED lights like the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Quizmasters often fox eager participants asking how many nuts and bolts are there in this 26,500 tonnes of steel bridge. The answer is: not a single one! 

The Coathanger — Sydney Harbour Bridge

Like Kolkata, Sydney is defined by the Sydney Harbour Bridge, besides the famous Opera house. Locals affectionately call it ‘Coathanger’. Opened in 1932, not only for Sydneysiders but for the continent too, the bridge stands for its identity. Considered the world’s greatest arch bridge, the bridge carries rail, vehicular, bicycle and pedestrian traffic between the Sydney central business district and the North Shore.

Though a proposal was made earlier in the late 19th century to build one such, it was only after the end of the First World War that the idea was taken more seriously. When it opened, it cost a car six pence to cross. A horse and rider cost 3 pence. Today horse buggies are banned but you can walk across free of charge. 

Climbing the bridge is on the do-list of many visitors but locals are equally enthusiastic too, some doing it multiple times. On the Bridge Climb route, climbers scale 1,332 steps. Those who venture to the summit 134m above the sea level, will get a 360º panoramic view of the harbour crowned by the Opera House with its ‘sails’. This is also a spot many choose to pop the question ‘Will you marry me?’ and according to reports, the success rate is quite high. 

Spectacular pyrotechnic fireworks on the Harbour Bridge on New Year’s Eve are aired across the world.

A challenge met — The Golden Gate

Think of San Francisco and the orange-coloured Golden Gate comes to the mind. It’s as symbolic as that — both of them intertwined. The Golden Gate Strait connects San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. Author Vikram Seth named his path-breaking novel written in sonnets, The Golden Gate:

In life’s brief game to be a winner

A man must have...oh yes, above

All else, of course, someone to love. 

 Seth had spent many years in San Francisco as a student. 

Yet, once it was called ‘the bridge that couldn’t be built,’ with harsh winds, fog, rock and unpredictable tides challenging the engineers for four years. Earlier people had to depend on ferries.

Today, this magnificent span is considered one the seven wonders of the modern world. It was opened on May 27, 1937, for the public but the day before, 2 lakh people walked and ran across it in exuberance. The Golden Gate Bridge fiesta lasted for a whole week. Movie aficionados would remember the bridge appearing prominently in films like The Maltese Falcon (1941), The Rock (1998). 

Evoking poetry — Brooklyn Bridge

Doing the ‘Bridge Walk’ on the Brooklyn Bridge over the East River is almost a ritual for visitors to the Big Apple. As hundreds of walkers and cyclists traverse this huge suspension bridge with the vertical New York skyline painting a pretty picture, it’s like tasting the big city first hand.

The idea of the bridge to connect the Brooklyn borough and Manhattan was mooted by engineer John A. Roebling, an engineer of German descent. The city fathers liked his plan and it was approved in 1867. It would be the very first steel suspension bridge, boasting the longest span in the world: 1,600 feet from tower to tower. It took 14 years to complete. Quite a few lives were lost during the construction. One of the first victims was Roebling himself when he fell into the river while taking measurements.

The bridge was inaugurated in1883. In 1884, circus entertainer P.T. Barnum took 21 elephants over the bridge to demonstrate that it was safe.

Ever since, millions of commuters, tourists, trains and bicycles, cars have used the bridge with huge neo-Gothic towers and crisscrossing steel wires like lacework.

That the Brooklyn Bridge is dear to the heart of New Yorkers and Americans, is amply proved by artworks and poems inspired by it. Artists like Georgia O’Keeffe, Andy Warhol, etc. have used its motif. TV shows and movies have featured it widely. It Happened in Brooklyn, Moonstruck, Godzilla and Spider-Man are some of them. 

There is even a Poets House group, which hosts a Bridge Walk every spring. Here poetry lovers congregate, gather on the Manhattan side of the bridge and walk together while reading poems about the bridge and the city. At the Fulton Ferry Landing on the other side, they listen to the recitation of Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, Walt Whitman’s famous poem about the East River. Though the bridge was built after this poem was written, his prophetic lines ring true even today.

East meets West — The Bosphorus Bridge

The Bosphorus Bridge is truly a conduit between two continents — Asia and Europe. Spanning the Bosphorus Strait, it connects Istanbul’s Asian (Beylerbeyi) and European side (Ortakoy) sides.

At 1560 m long, the Bosphorus Bridge was the fourth longest suspension bridge in the world when it opened in 1973.  In 2007, an LED lighting system was installed to illuminate the bridge at night and colourful lights show off this great bridge every evening.

The bridge is closed for pedestrians but in October, it opens for the Istanbul Eurasia Marathon — the only marathon that crosses from one continent to another.

Marvel over the Thames — London Bridge

“London Bridge is falling down, falling down,”— a familiar nursery rhyme children recite gleefully. The theme might refer to a repair work necessary for the London bridge at one time. But today, in common parlance, the name refers to the great Tower Bridge in Gothic style looming over the Thames, an iconic symbol of London. It is close to the Tower of London and hence the name. The original London Bridge is a little ahead upstream from here.

The Tower Bridge is a combination of  bascule (movable, so that boats can pass) and suspension bridge. It was built between 1886 and 1894. When the necessity of a new river crossing was felt in the mid-19th century, the problem of a fixed bridge at the street level loomed large as it would cut off the sailing ships. After many deliberations among engineers and planners, the present design was approved with two equal bascules or leaves which could be raised to allow river traffic to pass. The two side-spans were suspension bridges.

Today when you cross underneath the great bridge, or are lucky enough to watch the marvel of the bridge opening, you wonder at engineering feats and stamp the image of the Tower Bridge  in memory of the city of London.