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] => Hatirpool Bridge
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Hatirpool Bridge is located near Beriura Bazar at Sarail Upazila, Brahmanbaria on the way to Dhaka-Chittagong road. A road was built by Dewan Shabaz Ali from Sorail to Shabazpur during 1650 A.D. Many assume that this bridge was built at that time. Locally it is known as ‘Hatir Pool’. It is said that Dewans used to cross the river on back of elephant over this bridge.
This brick built bridge is curved in from with one big arched opening. Hatir Pool is a protected monument of Department of Archaeology, Bangladesh.
[This spot needs more detail. If you have more information and photos, please be advised to add in our website. Your name will be published as a Content Contributor]
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[name] => Muktarpur Bridge
[post_id] => 11760
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[post_content] => The sixth Bangladesh-China friendship bridge over the river Dhaleswari (ধলেশ্বরী) that connects Narayanganj and Munshiganj district is another attractive place to visit at Munshiganj. This bridge is at muktarpur, all buses from Dhaka to Munshiganj used to give a stoppage at the base of the bridge.
Muktarpur bridge was opened for public at 18th February 2008, and it was opened by the Chief Advisor of Bangladesh Government, Mr. Fakhruddin Ahmed. Before the bridge was established , people of that particular area used to cross the river with trawler boats, and the vehicles through Ferry. After its construction, now a days, it’s no more require the Ferry transport, but still some people used to cross the river using boat. The bridge is not allowed to take any Rickshaw, that's why I think people are still using this route.
It takes around 15 minutes to cross the bridge. Even though you are there at summer season, but at the middle of the bridge, there’s always plenty of cool airs from the river, and that was enough to ease the hot from the sun. It’s a lovely place to enjoy your time. At Every moment, under the bridge, different types of water vehicles are passing. Some are bigger in size, some are smaller. Some boats are carrying goods, like sand, woods, etc. Some are trawler that carrying people to their destination. Also from the middle of the bridge, you can enjoy the beauty of the river Dhaleswari. At the both side of the bridge there are lovely scene to watch. The water of the river is clean. Not dirty like other rivers from Dhaka or Narayanganj area. You'll find lots of people are having baths at the bank of the river. There is a stair at the bridge where the river bank started. If you want, you can get down from the bridge using the stairs, and enjoy the beauty of the bridge under the bridge.
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[name] => Hardinge Bridge
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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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Keane Bridge was named after Sir Micheal Keane who was English governor of Assam from 1932-1937, located on top of Surma river and it is known as the gateway to Sylhet. It was built in the year 1936. Standing on 1150 feet tall and with a width of 18 feet, this bridge the sign of many history. The budget required to build this bridge was 5.6 million taka.
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{:}{:bn}কিন ব্রীজ সিলেট শহরে শাহজালাল সড়কের কাছে অবস্থিত। ১৯৩২ সাল থেকে ১৯৩৭ সাল পর্যন্ত আসামের ইংরেজ গভর্নর স্যার মাইকেল কিনের নামে এই সেতুটির নামকরন করা হয়। সুরমা নদীর ওপর অবস্থিত এই সেতুটি সিলেট শহরের প্রবেশদ্বার হিসেবে পরিচিত। ১৯৩৬ সালে নির্মিত এই সেতুটির দৈর্ঘ্য ১১৫০ ফুট এবং প্রস্থ ১৪ ফুট। এই সেতুটি নির্মাণে প্রায় ৫৬ লাখ টাকা ব্যায় হয়েছিল।{:}
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