HOWRAH BRIDGE- Without nuts and bolts

How about visiting a vintage bridge which has no nuts & bolts in its construction but still standing tall for the last 66 years? Hard to believe? The Bridge in concern - one of the busiest in the world - is located at Howrah in West Bengal. The Howrah bridge, the sixth longest of its type, has been an emblem of the city of Kolkata from its inception. So much so that the world knows Kolkata by its trams, the Victoria Memorial, and of course the Howrah Bridge. Opened to traffic in 1943, the construction of the bridge was started in 1937. The bridge has remained one of the most renowned landmarks of Kolkata. More than 150,000 vehicles and 4,000,000 pedestrians cross over the bridge every day. Technically speaking, Howrah Bridge is a "Cantilever Truss" bridge, constructed entirely by riveting, without nuts or bolts!

The present bridge, initially named the “New Howrah Bridge” was built between 1937 and 1943. On June 14, 1965 it was rechristened to Rabindra Setu, after the first Indian Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. The bridge is exposed to traffic 24 hours a day except for Inter- State transport buses, goods vehicles, and All India Tourist buses. At night, only three wheelers and goods vehicles are allowed to pass. To monitor deck level traffic and the same along the river, CCTV is being used.

Notable features of the Howrah Bridge:

705 meters in length, 97 feet in width, 82 meters in height 26,500 plus mega tonne of high-tensile steel was used Suspension type Balanced Cantilever 325 ft, length of each anchor arm 468 ft, length of each Cantilever arm 564 ft, suspended span Deck width 71 ft, footpath 15 feet on either side No nuts & bolts Total 8 articulation joints, 3 at each of the cantilever arms, and 2 in the suspended portions Carriageway Minimum headroom is 5.8 m River traffic freeboard is 8.8 m Ranks sixth in World’s top 10 longest Cantilever bridges