Kolkata is famous for its people, their culture, food, music, literature and the movies. It is one of the most densely populated cities in India along the banks of river Ganga with a heritage as dense. If Bangalore is the Seattle of India, then Kolkata is the sub-continent’s London. It is an ‘in your face’ city that shocks and charms the unsuspecting visitor.
Friendlier than India’s other metropolises, this is a city you ‘feel’ more than simply visit. Walk the chaotic back alleys, ride the Hooghly ferries. Today the city of Kolkata known for its grand colonial architecture, art galleries and cultural festivals.
Kolkata has an intrinsic relation with Howrah Bridge. The icon for the Kolkata city and a monumental landmark, Howrah Bridge is famous for many reasons. Howrah has witnessed the making of Modern India. To mark the monument of history of India, we have listed down 10 intriguing facts about Howrah Bridge which you might not have heard before!
Fact 1 – Howrah Bridge is a cantilever bridge and its construction amazingly did not include the use of nuts or bolts.
Fact 2 – 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.
Fact 3 – It took 6 long years in the making of this grand bridge. The construction of bridge was started on 1936 and ended in 1942. It was opened for the public transport on 3rd February 1943.
Fact 4 – On June 14th, 1965, the bridge was renamed Rabindra Setu after the great Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore. However, it is still popularly known as Howrah Bridge.
Fact 5 – It carries a daily traffic of approximately 100,000 vehicles and possibly more than 150,000 pedestrians, making it one of the busiest cantilever bridges in the world. That shows the strength and importance of this structure.
Fact 6 – The prestige of Howrah is world wide, it is ranked 6th among the cantilever suspension type bridges. At the time of construction its rank was 3rd.
Fact 7 -The first vehicle to use the bridge was a solitary tram.
Fact 8 – The length of the bridge is 705 meter and width is 71 feet with two footpaths of 15 feet on either side.
Fact 9 – 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.
Fact 10 – It has featured in numerous movies, Hindi, Malayalam, Bengali, Tamil, etc. Few movies shot here are Gunday, Barfi!, Love Aaj Kal, Tamil film Aadhavan, Malayalam Film Calcutta News, Roland Joffé’s English language film City of Joy and the list goes on…
Kolkata is a beautiful city, a center that has preserved the culture of East India. Do now miss out the other places to visit in Kolkata
Get your free personalized itinerary to explore this grand bridge of India.
If you know more facts apart from these 10, please share with us and comment below…