Jubilee Bridge

 place with historical importance, bridge, railway bridge

Hooghly Rail Bridge.Connecting Naihati with Bandel. This bridge was built at the time (1885), when Sri Sri Ramakrishna Dev was alive. Cross this bridge with the above said "Statutory Warning".(This bridge is about to fall down).Construction of a new Railway Bridge besides this Bridge has been started.Both are constructed by the British. Both are full-steel cantilever bridges. But while Edinburgh Forth Bridge is basking in the glory of being a World Heritage Site, our very own Jubilee Bridge, an engineering marvel that connects Hooghly with Nadia, is gradually sinking into oblivion.

It's not that Jubilee Bridge didn't have the potential to edge past the Forth Bridge at the recently concluded World Heritage conference at Bonn in Germany. In fact, Jubilee Bridge was more competent than its Scottish rival. Thrown open to public in 1887, it is world's first all-steel-and-cantilever bridge. The Forth Bridge came into existence three years later.

Experts felt lack of awareness back home and shoddy maintenance of heritage structures spelt doom for Jubilee Bridge. Biswajit Som, an expert in heritage structure conservation who represented India at the World Heritage conference organized by Unesco on July 5, expressed shock over the "injustice" meted out to Jubilee Bridge. "I was feeling bad to think the plight of Jubilee Bridge while the Edinburgh Forth Bridge bagged the world heritage tag,"