For eight years in the early 19th Century, this city had a suspension bridge. The year was 1831, Chennai, then Madras, had gotten its first and only suspension bridge, connecting Chintadripet to Poonamallee High Road. “In 1839, the British Army carried out a closed march on the bridge. But the bridge had weakened due to corrosion and gave way, dropping the soldier into the Cooum river,” says historian Hemchandra Rao, while conducting a tour of the city’s old arch bridges built across different parts of the Cooum.
Today however, the bridge is non-functional, a dead end with a temporary parking area. Trams used to run over this bridge, but once that service ended, and the suburban railway line came into place, the bridge also fell out of use. Walking down the bridge now, you are greeted with the putrid whiff of fish and garbage. Quick aside: “The Aaiyya Murali street is so old that it finds mention in the 19th Century records, even then it was called the same,” reveals Rao.
However worthless a bridge may look today, there’s no denying its bricks are packed with history. Take St Andrew’s five-arch bridge, popularly known as Gandhi-Irwin Bridge, for instance. Constructed under Major De Havilland in 1817, it was the result of the labours of prisoners. “Havilland had asked the British Government to provide him with prisoners to cut down on cost,” he says. “Another unusual thing he did was to put a lime mill on site to make bricks for the arches.”
When we reach Harris bridge, the men and horses of the mounted police are trotting across. The bridge joining Mount Road to Pudupet took eight years to build due to opposition from local residents; work on it finally started in 1845. “The residents were worried that the festivities at a temple lying on the path of the bridge would be obstructed if it was built. The British then brought in the Land Acquisition Act to plough ahead,” says Rao.
St George’s bridge, today known as Periyar bridge, despite being the oldest of the lot — built in 1804 by Lt Thomas Fraser— still manages to look impressive, connecting Islands Grounds with Triplicane. Of its 11 arches, the one at the centre is the biggest, arches decreasing in size as it goes either way.
“It was the first bridge to be built with scientific precision and a lot of ornamentation,” says Rao, adding, “Before this one was built, bridges made of timber were used, which would get washed away every year.” The bridge lay abandoned for a few years initially; according to Rao, the British Government incorrectly believed Lt Fraser overshot his estimate.
The bridges were used to cross the Coovum, in some places over 200 feet wide then. They welcomed boats bringing in rice, through the Buckingham Canal from Pazhaverkadu (Pulicat). Today, they overlook a scene far from the picture of health, with weed and refuse slowing down the river’s flow. When one visitor asks Rao if he knows what the future of the Coovum will be Rao shrugs. It’s only its history he keeps track of.