Koilwar Bridge 4.51

The Koilwar Bridge, also named as Abdul Bari Bridge, at Koilwar spans the River Sone. The bridge was named after Professor Abdul Bari, academic and social reformer.The steel lattice girder Koilwar Bridge was the longest bridge in the subcontinent when built: construction started in 1856, disrupted by uprisings in 1857, and completed in 1862. A two-lane road runs under the twin rail tracks.The bridge was inaugurated by the Viceroy Lord Elgin, who said, "... this magnificent bridge is exceeded in magnitude by only one bridge in the world". The bridge was designed by James Meadows Rendell and Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt. It remained the longest bridge in the Indian subcontinent till it was overtaken by the Upper Sone Bridge in 1900.The bridge is shown in the film Gandhi.HistoryAn initial survey of the bridge site was made on 17 February 1851 by George Turnbull, Chief Engineer of the East Indian Railway Company: he determined that the river then was feet across — the completed bridge was feet across. He settled on the site near Pures "where the banks are well defined, and the channel had evidently for ages been confined within certain limits, proved by the existence of old Hindoo temples, far before the Mohammaden works at Muneer, built about 200 years."