Some of the earliest images of Madras show a fishing village, with its cloak of nets, lengthy boats and turbaned men rushing towards the waters of the Marina as tall palms sway in the background. As this village grew, the need for connecting the villages that lay across various rivers and canals, and not just by boats, grew. Bridges were built, first of wood and then of brick and mortar, and villages grew closer and closer until they became the city of Madras. Some of these bridges, as old as the city itself, continue to exist (albeit in different forms and names), even today.
While there is some documentation of the bridges that existed in the British era, it is rather difficult to determine their exact location now (some of them are visible in Thomas Pitt’s map of 1711 and others in maps that were drawn as the city grew) given the evolution of the city in the last three hundred years. This two-part series tries to locate these bridges and record their existence.
Hemachandra Rao, an architect by profession and a lover of old Madras, has been chronicling the history of its bridges over many years. “You must remember that they were constructed to hold bullock carts and not cars,” he says, “all built out of brick, mortar and lime but their architecture and strength are evident, as they continue to bear the weight of the city’s traffic. Madras has about 29 beautiful arched bridges that have been a part of the city for many years.”
Among the oldest bridges on record is what used to be called the Barber’s Bridge in San Thome. While popular theory attributes it to a Hamilton, the Vestiges of Old Madras by Henry Davidson Love goes back even further. It mentions that a natural drainage channel on the north side of St. Thome was crossed by Barber’s Bridge. While it was initially called Hamilton, a name that was corrupted into Ambattan by the locals, the original bridge was probably built by the Portuguese, as there is a mention of it during the French occupation of San Thome in 1672-1674 (On the 3rd October De La Haye led the troops to a bridge on the north side, 500 paces distant, where a skirmish took place). This is, of course, prior to the British influence over the area. The Hindu Archives even has a photo of a plaque that used to be on the old bridge, according to which the bridge was built ‘at about 1600’, before it was rebuilt.
H.D. Love’s book also says that Ensign James Hamilton, an engineer who was killed at Madura in 1764 was the only known person with that name, further making us wonder if he had rebuilt it in the 1700s. The bridge still exists in a different form just adjacent to Citi Centre mall (it was recently renamed Dr. Ambedkar Bridge).
Following close behind is the Armenian Gate Bridge, which connected Black Town and Peddanaikpetta. According to H.D. Love’s book, it is said to have been built around or a little before 1677, as it was called the ‘new bridge’ then. During the floods of 1720 and 1721, the bridge was damaged, as it was built with timber on brick abutments. It was rebuilt in 1725. It was demolished when the French briefly occupied the fort between 1746 and 1749.
Egmore bridge, which is described as the ‘cut connecting the Elambore and Triplicane rivers’ was erected as early as 1703. There were problems and the foundation was washed out and rebuilt. Soon, an arch gave way and the bridge was again repaired and put up in 1728. It still exists as the St. Mary’s Bridge (probably because of its proximity to the St. Mary’s cemetery, which leads us to think that this might be the bridge that leads to Central Station as you take a left from Periyar Bridge). The old bridge seems to have made appearances in movies such as Varanam Aayiram and Madrasapattinam. Because platforms were built on both sides, the arches of the old bridge and the canal are no longer visible.
The exact location of the bridge is recorded in the Madras Tercentenary Commemoration Volume, which says Noah Cosa Major’s (after whom Casa Major Road is named) house was “in the north-west corner of the island, between the roads leading to Egmore and Chintadripetta. The latter, in fact, forked beyond Cosa Major’s house, one branch leading to Egmore Bridge, and the other to Triplicane Bridge and Chintadripetta.”
The Armenian Gate Bridge and the Egmore Bridge are recorded in Pitt’s Map. “The bridges in the city were distributed over three rivers,” says Hemachandra Rao, “Cooum, Adyar and Buckingham canal, all built in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries with arches. These arches were built so that the bridges were stable.” It also enabled navigation by river.
As the 1700s dawned, more villages came under Madras. Governor Thomas Pitt, who took over in 1698, is credited with adding five more towns to the city — Trivatore, Nungumbaukum, Vasalavada, Catawauk and Satangadu. Soon, more bridges would be needed.
An Island bridge was projected by Yale in 1690 but wasn’t built until 1715, connecting the Fort to the Island, but this was damaged over and over again and was later removed because there was a diversion of the stream on which it was built.
Following this was the Triplicane Bridge, also known as St. George’s Bridge, Lord Willingdon Bridge, now the Periyar Bridge. According to Vestiges of Old Madras, it connected the Island to Triplicane, and the Fort to San Thome and the Mount. This was sometime between 1715 and 1718.
Periyar Bridge, a multi-arched bridge rebuilt in 1805, is of a different alignment.
THE MARMALONG BRIDGE
In 1726, one of the most popular bridges of Madras was being built — Marmalong Bridge, the first across the Adyar River. Built by the Armenian Coderjee Petrus Uscan (who came to Madras in 1724) with his own money, the bridge was named Marmalong after Mambalam, a village on the Adyar River, west of San Thome. The plaque on one of the pillars of the old bridge still exists, even if in another place altogether. There is no trace of Uscan’s arched bridge now and a concrete structure, Maraimalai Adigalar Bridge, has taken its place.
In 1755 came the Wallajah Bridge, connecting the Wallajah Gate of the Fort to the Island. The bridge ends and in the middle of this stretch is the Monroe statue, says S. Muthiah’s Madras Rediscovered. According to Vestiges of Old Madras, a stone inscription on the west end of the bridge says, ‘Wallajah Bridge, erected by Order of Government in 1755…’ This was widened and the new bridge, with concrete on one side, is now called the Quaid-e-Millath Bridge.
Except for those mentioned above, it has been difficult to pinpoint dates for the other bridges that were built in the 1700s and 1800s. While there is some information about a few of them, the stories of most arched bridges are foggy, to say the least.
Archival information
Hemachandra Rao has diligently gathered details from the State archives and other sources. “There is a rather old bridge down Chintadripet which leads to Ripon Building, called Law’s Bridge. A name plaque still exists,” he says. “If you look down at the river, you can even see an abandoned boat jetty nearby.” The bridge, however, is now full of garbage and just a walk down is an assault on one’s senses.
The famous Napier Bridge, which connects the entire stretch of the Marina with the Fort, was built in 1869 by Francis Napier, then Governor. This bridge was widened in 1999. “On this bridge, the arches are on the top, a rather different one,” says Rao.
Other bridges are the Chintadripet Bridge, which connects Chintadripet with Egmore. Turn right and you will land on St. Andrew’s Bridge, which is now popularly called Gandhi-Irwin Bridge. “When these bridges were constructed is not clear and there is very less information available,” says Rao, who also pinpoints that a left from Chintadripet bridge will take one down Lang’s Garden Road and to Harris Bridge (now Adhithanar Bridge), which, according to the plaque on one of its stone walls, was built in 1855.
Binny Bridge, adjacent to Connemara Hotel, is named after John Binny, whose residence became the Imperial Hotel, which is now the Vivanta by Taj Connemara. This also seems to be called Commander-in-Chief’s Bridge, which would lead us to think it was built in 1825 (according to H.D. Love’s book). “If you go down that road, you can see the arches of Anderson Bridge as you approach the Pantheon Road signal,” says Rao. This bridge is named after Dr. James Anderson, who had a botanic garden in the area once. The bridge was built in 1829.
There seems to have been a Monroe’s Bridge but it is no longer in use. An Elphinstone Bridge (1840) on River Adyar, seems to be the one in disuse on the side of the current Adyar Bridge, says Rao. Basin Bridge, named after a basin nearby to purify water, is one of the bridges on the Buckingham Canal. There seems to have been a Granduff Bridge nearby (named after an erstwhile Governor) but one can’t pinpoint its location. Chepauk Bridge, Royapuram Bridge over a railway line (the arches are clearer since there is no water beneath) and the Ice House Bridge are the others.
More links to the past
On the other side of Mount Road and Triplicane are a few more bridges that aren’t really talked about. The Luz Bridge connects Mylapore and Luz, Mundakanniamman Koil Bridge connects Luz to Kutchery Road and the Cancer Institute Bridge. Pycrofts Bridge, one on Edward Elliot’s Road (now R.K. Salai) near the DGP’s office, is lesser-known.
Even as the arches grow weary and their colours turn dull, these bridges witnessed the growth of this city, from its humble beginnings to the metropolis it has now become.
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