Brief
Eliot Bridge, a glorious heritage of the district town, still attracts thousands of tourists from home and abroad. Built over the Baral in the middle of the town during the British rule, the bridge has no pillar. Popularly known as ‘Boropul,’ the bridge connects the eastern part of the town with its western part. The bridge stands as a witness to many important events of the this sub-continent. The western bank of the Baral was under the jurisdiction of the then Jaminder Siraj Ali Chowdhury. He realised the importance of the place and established a river port in 1808. Later, the area was named as Sirajganj after the Jaminder.
In 1869, Sirajganj municipality was established and later a police station was set up. In 1866, it was upgraded to a sub-divisional town and later a district town in 1984. In the 18th century, boats and steamers were found to move through the Baral. In absence of railway, goods laden water vessels plied to Assam and other parts of West Bengal through Sirajganj. Trade and business flourished on both banks of the river. In 1892, Bitsonbell, a Briton became the sub-divisional officer (SDO) of Sirajganj. Later, he became the governor of Bengal and Assam.
One day he was returning home from the western bank. All on a sudden, he heard a groaning sound of a poor man. The man bought food from his day-long earnings. As he had no single paisa, the boatman was not allowing him to get on board his boat. Observing his plight, Bitsonbell helped the man cross the river. After this event, Bell decided to build a bridge a bridge across the Baral. He formed a committee consisting of businessmen of the town. They contributed generously at its fund and the District Board granted Tk 1,500.
Sir Charles Eliot, the then government of Bengal and Assam laid the foundation of the 180 feet long and 16 feet wide bridge named after him on August 6. 1882. Stuart Hartland, a British firm constructed the pillarless bridge at a cost of Tk 45,000. The bridge was repaired during the immediate past BNP-led alliance regime.
SOURCE: Golam Mostafa Jibon, The Daily Star, Sirajganj
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[name] => Panam Bridge
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Panam area is formed as a part of the Muslim metropolis, developed on the south of the old city, and perhaps constituted as the place of residence of the early Muslim governors'. After the Mughal conquest of Sonargaon (1611), the Panam area was connected with the ruling metropolis by construction of highways and bridges. Panam still possesses three brick bridges belonging to the Mughal period: Panam Bridge, Dalalpur Bridge and Panamnagar Bridge. The existence of these bridges and the canals enclosing the site on three sides is indicative of its being a suburban area of the medieval city.
Panam Bridge a fine old bridge constructed originally over a canal on a village road from Hajiganj to Baidyer Bazar, now located a little further to the east of Habibpur on a pucca road between Companyganj and Bari Majlis in Sonargaon. It was originally known as Companyganj ka Pul (কোম্পানিগঞ্জের পুল). The Bridge measuring about 53 meter in length and 5 metre in breadth consists of three arches, the middle arch being wider and higher providing easy passage of boats underneath. The steep roadway is formed of bricks circularly arranged. The architectural feature places the bridge to belong to the Mughal period (17th century).
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[name] => Hardinge Bridge
[post_id] => 2871
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Hardinge Bridge (Bengali:
হার্ডিঞ্জ ব্রিজ) is a steel railway bridge over the river Padma located at Paksey in western Bangladesh. It is named after Lord Hardinge, who was the Viceroy of India from 1910 to 1916. The bridge is 1.8 kilometers (1.1 mi) long. It is named after Lord Hardinge. From 1910-1916 he was the Viceroy of India. Its construction began in 1910 and ended in 1912, though it was proposed two decades ago. There was train movement on it from 1915. There was proposal of constructing a railway bridge over Padma. Eastern Bengal Railway laid the proposal in 1889.The motive of constructing this bridge was to ease communication between Eastern part of Bengal and Kolkata.
The construction of a railway bridge over the Padma was proposed in 1889 by the Eastern Bengal Railway for easier communication between Calcutta and the then Eastern Bengal and Assam. In 1902, Sir FJE Spring prepared a report on the bridge. A technical committee reported that a bridge could be constructed at Sara crossing the lowerGanges between the Paksey and Bheramara Upazila stations on the broad gauge railway from Khulna to Parbatipur Upazila. The construction of the bridge started in 1910 and finished two years later. The bridge comprises 15 steel trusses. The main girders are modified "Petit" type.
The most difficult task of the operation was to prevent bank erosion and to make the river flow permanently under the bridge. For this, two guide banks of the "Bell-bund" type named after J. R. Bell were built on either side, each extending 910 metres (3,000 ft) upstream and 300 metres (1,000 ft) downstream from the bridge.
[2] The ends of the river banks were curved inward and heavily pitched with stone.
Hardinge Bridge was severely damaged during the Liberation War of Bangladesh of 1971. It happened on 13 December 1971, when the Indian Air Force plane bombed on the 4th guarder from the Paksey side. As the Pakistani army was on retreat towards Jessore (their last stronghold) Hardinge Bridge was strategically very important. The allied force damaged the bridge. The Japanese Government helped to reconstruct the bridge. It is the second largest railway bridge in Bangladesh. Another bridge named Lalon Shah Bridge for road transport beside the Hardinge Bridge has recently been constructed.
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[name] => Puran Para Railway Bridge
[post_id] => 12173
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Puran Para Railway bridge is located at puran para (পুরান পাড়া) area of Narsingdi Sadar. It is one of the renowned and popular public places in Narsingdi district for wondering around.
This place belongs a narrow road heading toward the river Arial Kha. This road is unique as it contains rows of green trees on its both side making its beauty far more natural and people of different ages use this road for their morning or evening walk.
Besides, if someone go ahead following this beautiful road then he/she will be ended up in the bank of river Arial kha and a newly constructed iron made railway bridge which is obviously a gorgeous one to visit recurrently.
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[name] => Mirkadim Bridge
[post_id] => 8217
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Mirkadim bridge (মীরকাদিম ব্রিজ) spans the Mir Kadim canal (creek) which runs from Mir Kadim to Tangibari. It connects the village Abdullahpur and Panam area of Rampal Union Parishad under Munshigonj District. It is situated at a distance of about 5.50 km from the district headquarters. The local tradition claims it to have been built by King Ballal Sen, but the architectural features belie the local tradition. The bridge can architecturally be attributed to the Mughal period, not earlier than 17th century. The 53m long bridge consists of a central pointed arch of 4.40m span with two side arches of 2.25m span each. The central arch is 0.40m high from the water level of the creek and at present 31m wide. It is 6.15m wide with each wing measuring 16.80m in length. The central arch is flanked by an octagonal pilaster on each side. Similarly each of the side arches has a pilaster each crowned with a cupola. The plasters of the side arches rise above the spandrel of the arch but those of the central arch are shorter and so not reach the archivolt. The pier is 1.85m thick. It is reported that on either end of the bridge there were circular pillars but now these are buried under earth. It appears that there are 6 piers on each side of the bridge. The central arch is loftier and wider than the side ones and is set in a deep rectangular panel with plain plastered spandrel. Base of the arches provided with cut waters. The hump backed bridge rises to a central point from which its back gently slopes to either side. It has a 70 cm high parapet wall on either side. The surviving thickness of the bridge measures 4.34m.
It has been protected and repaired extensively by the Department of Archaeology.
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