User:PEA-2292/My sandbox

The Elphinstone Bridge was completed c.1840 to provide a connection from the southern suburbs of Madras over the tidal Adyar River to the south. The bridge was completed c.1840

However, the bridge was severely damaged during a cyclone between 1876 and 1878 and the use was resticted to slow-moving traffic across the river until 1973 when a new bridge was opened. Today the bridge carries sewer pipelines. It is 11 metres (36 ft) wide and has concrete slabs covering the sewer pipelines running over it. The full width of the bridge is covered with the slabs and either side of the bridge has a flight of stairs, which is used by pedestrians

History

In 1830’s the Madras Government were concerned with the opening of communication south of Fort George and across the Adyar River towards the South and the Alabar Coast .

The Pophams Police report had suggested that the river was a barrier and an aid to security in 1785. “The river depth was protection from horse for the first mile” .

The Elphinstone Bridge for bridging the Adyar River was constructed under the watchful eyes of John Elphinstone when he was the reigning Governor of Madras from the year 1837 to 1842 and was named after him. It seems to have been completed in about 1840 .

The area to the south of the river had been used as hunting grounds by British officials of Fort St. George from the 1680s onwards though Adyar is first mentioned as a suburb of Madras only in a map from the year 1740 when the British purchased the village and integrated it with the Madras Presidency .

Madras 1893 "Constable's Hand Atlas of India" - this map clearly shows to the Adyar River to the south of the city and the Elphinston Bridge

Madras was built on a plain surrounded by lakes called tanks, These discharge into the rivers and as streams through the sandy and swamp ground that surround the city especially to the south.

Before its construction, there were no bridges across the Adyar river except the causeway then known as Marmalong Bridge. Parisals, which were round floats pushed by long poles, were the chief mode of transportation across the river, and there were several makeshift landing places on the banks of the river for carrying goods . The area is subject to severe storms and cyclones and in 1846 a cyclone was registered above 40lb per square foot (90 MPH / 145KPH) when the anemometer broke. The wind and storm surge damaged the bridge when one of the massive stone pillars was blown over . The bridge is nearly 1,570 ft (480 mtrs) long and the river is tidal for up to 2.5 miles (4Km) from its mouth.

The Superintendent of Government Roads was asked to try a trial stone tramway as a means of stabilising the road across the swampy and sandy countryside south of the bridge. Stone Tramways were quite common at this time in Europe and America .

The Adyar River Tramway was under consideration in 1842 to provide a stone tramway to connect south Madras to the outlying districts of Santhome and Mylapore by constucting a stone tramway utilising the Elphinstone Bridge, presumably to convey carts pulled by bullock and extended over existing roads. A short length was constucted but in 1843 the experiment was abandoned.

'The Hindu Newspaper' article 13 Aug 2016 shows a photograph of the 'Elphinstone Bridge'(1840) on River Adyar, seems to be the one in disuse on the side of the current Adyar Bridge . The 'Madras Musings' also gives a modern photograph of the 'Elphinstone Bridge' .