Saturday, February 15, 2014

Napier Bridge


Napier Bridge is one of Chennai’s oldest tied-arch structural bridge, built over the Coovum River connecting Fort St. George with the Marina beach in Chennai (Madras), India. This bridge, regarded as an architectural marvel, was built in 1869 by Francis Napier, then Governor of Madras (1866 – 1872).

This was earlier a narrow bridge, later it was broadened and converted to a concrete structure in July 1943 by Arthur Hope. The Government of Tamil Nadu also built , a new bridge was built in 1999 with a 10.5 m-wide carriageway on the western side.

The bridge is 138 m long with 6 spans (bowstrings) across the river near its mouth. It has 2-m wide footpaths.

The beauty of this bridge is, you can watch both sunrise at Marina beach and one can see the sunset too from either end of the bridge. sunrise from bay of Bengal and sunset from the Coovum river.

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