Howrah Bridge

The Howrah Bridge — officially Rabindra Setu since 1965 — is a 705-metre cantilever bridge spanning the Hooghly River between Kolkata and Howrah. Designed by Sir Bradford Leslie's firm Rendel, Palmer & Tritton and built by the British India Constructions Company between 1937 and 1942, it carried its first traffic on 3 February 1943 — replacing an unstable pontoon bridge that had served the river since 1874. The bridge is a steel cantilever with no piers in the river — its 457-metre central span rests on twin 80-metre anchor towers on each bank. It was the third-longest cantilever bridge in the world at completion. It carries roughly 100,000 vehicles and 150,000 pedestrians a day, making it among the busiest cantilever bridges in the world. The flower market and Mullick Ghat at the eastern foot are themselves a separate spectacle — flower-traders begin business at 04:00, the volume peaks by 06:00. Photography from the bridge itself is legally prohibited, though widely flouted. The best photographs are from Mullick Ghat (east bank, sunrise) or from a Hooghly launch. Howrah Station — itself a Victorian monument — sits at the western foot.