Interesting facts and information about Howrah Bridge

Interesting facts and information about Howrah Bridge

Howrah Bridge also known as Rabindra Setu is a suspension type balanced cantilever bridge located in West Bengal, India. It connects Howrah and Kolkata. The Bridge is made over the river Hooghly (a branch of River Ganga).

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 6^th among the cantilever suspension type bridges. At the time of construction its rank was 3^rd.

• 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.