Lesser-known facts about Kolkata’s Howrah Bridge as it completes 75 years

The iconic Howrah Bridge, renamed as the Rabindra Setu in 1965 after Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, is something that makes for one of the most important landmarks in Kolkata. Ask a traveller to picturise the City of Joy in an instant and probably the first thing that will come to his mind is this iconic landmark. The Howrah Bridge completed 75 years on Saturday as the Kolkata Port Trust lit it up with a beautiful array of colourful lights to celebrate the occasion.

The Howrah Bridge in Kolkata has been a long-standing witness of the city’s historical years, both in the pre-Independence era when it was the national capital and also after the Independence. Besides, it has also earned its well-deserved place in the portrayal of the city and its popular culture through books, films and other forms of media.
Although a popular landmark for tourists and residents alike, Howrah Bridge’s rare facts are hardly talked about. Keeping the keen travellers in mind, we have compiled a list of some of the unknown facts.

● The real name of Howrah Bridge was the New Howrah Bridge, at the time it was built. This is because, before it was commissioned in 1943, it was a simple pontoon bridge. But then after the Howrah railway station came into being in 1906, there was a need for a properly-constructed bridge for better to and fro movement.

● Hard to believe but true, the Howrah Bridge was built without the use of a single nut and screw to join the array of metallic structures making up the gigantic structure of the bridge. Instead, a piece of metal was used to connect two or more plates inserted through the hole in plates and pressed on the other side.
● The Howrah Bridge is one of the oldest hanging bridges in the world with no pillars supporting its suspension over the Hooghly River. It is the sixth longest bridge of its type in the world.

● Having been there for more than seven decades, the Howrah Bridge has witnessed some of the major historical events of the world, including the Second World War.
● Although one only gets to see cars, bikes, buses and other wheel-based vehicles plying on the bridge, it was the vintage trams of Kolkata that used to operate on the Howrah Bridge earlier. In fact, the first ever mode of transportation that was used on the bridge was a solitary tram. Trams were banned on the bridge in 1993 due to increasing vehicular traffic on the bridge.