Did you know that Andrew Handyside who built Derby's Friargate bridge, built hundreds of other bridges around the world.
By 1892 over 270 bridges made at their Britannia Foundry were shipped to India.
Hooghly (Howrah) Pontoon Bridge is one example, Work started on construction of this bridge in 1873, The bridge opened to traffic on October 17th October 1874.
This bridge was 1528 feet long and 62 foot wide, consisting of a 48-foot roadway and two 7 foot footpaths. All the ironwork was fabricated by Andrew Handyside in Derby, a total of 2525 tons was shipped from Derby to India, assembled on site.
1500 tons of Johore teak wood was incorporated into the super-structure.
A colourised photograph from the 1890s of Hooghly (Howrah) Pontoon Bridge :
Different parts were constructed in England and shipped to Calcutta, where they were assembled.
The assembling period was fraught with problems. The bridge was considerably damaged by the great cyclone on 20 March 1874. A steamer named Egeria broke from her moorings and collided head-on with the bridge, sinking three pontoons and damaging nearly 200 feet of the bridge.
From August 19th 1879 this bridge was illuminated by electric lampposts, powered by a dynamo at the Mullick Ghat pumping station.
The bridge was a floating pontoon bridge, carried by 28 narrow pontoons braced in couples. Each of the pontoons was moored to a 3 ton anchor with 450 foot of chain cable.
It had a 200-foot opening for ships to navigate under the bridge.
A colourised photograph from the 1910 of Hooghly (Howrah) Pontoon Bridge :
This bridge lasted 70 years and was demolished in 1945 and a new bridge built which was a cantilever style, this bridge is known as the Rabindra Setu bridge.
Hope you found this of interest.
