Jhelum Bridge

Jhelum Bridge

The bridge opened 14 Sep 1876 as metre gauge(MG) ‘Punjab Northern State Railway’(PNSR) connecting Lahore to Jhelum. The bridge was composed of iron trusses over many concrete piers. It has single railway track and a road on one side of the track.

The PNSR with threee associated bridges, was the first attempt of railway construction under the newly formed Public Works Department - Railway Branch.
The bridges were :-

• ‘Alexandra Bridge’ over the River Chenab
• ‘Jhelum Bridge’, over the River Jhelum
• ‘Ravi Bridge’, over the River Ravi

The bridge was constructed by the PNSR in accordance with Government Railway Gauge policy at the time (See separate page ‘Railway Gauge’ ). This policy was reversed in Jan 1874 and the conversion of this section to broad gauge(BG) was completed.

Jhelum was then connected by other cities in the Indian empire, 1,367 miles(2190km) from Calcutta, 1,413 miles(2260km) from Bombay, and 849 miles(1360km) from Karachi. .

The PNSR was merged with other railways to form the ‘North Western Railway’(NWR) in 1886

Construction

The construction of the railway bridge on the river Jhelum commenced in 1873 by the British engineer William St. John Galwey and assisted by the young engineer Hugh Lewin Monk. The length of the bridge was fixed at 4875 feet(1486mtr) between the abutments with training works of the left bank. There are 50 spans of 90 feet (27.4mtr) each giving forty-nine piers and two abutments.

The details of the construction are fully given in the ‘Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, 1878’ .

Present State

This bridge is still used by railway and road traffic. It is the longest Railway Bridge of Pakistan spanning across length of 2.6 miles (4.225 km) .

Further Information

See Punjab Northern State Railway for information and map showing location of ‘Attock Bridge’ and other PNSR Bridges
and North Western Railway for information after 1886