Pagla Pul: Bridge at Pagla built by Mughal Subehdar Mir Jumla in the 17th century

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Photograph of the ruined bridge 'Paglar Pul' taken in the 1870s by an unknown photographer may be seen in many books. This famous river front bridge was built at Pagla 5 miles east of Dhaka was built when Dhaka was a seat of Mughal Government in 1660 by Mir Jumla, Subedar of Bengal, during his Assam campaign for ease of communication. French traveller Tavernier noticed it in 1666 as a fine brick bridge; Bishop Heber in 1824 identified it as a magnificent Mughal relic. The bridge had corner towers, and spanned the river Pagla or Kamala which possibly was a branch of Dholai and connected Sitalakkhya and Buriganga. Though the DOA listed the structure in 1950, it could not take possession.

The ruins of the two bridge structures/pillars still exit but under adverse possession of a temple. For pics see: www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/apac/photocoll/d/019ph... and dhakadailyphoto.blogspot.com/2007/02/historical-pagla-b...

The recent images of Pagla Bridge were taken from blog 'Dhaka' and the old ones from the british record of Hoffman in 1880 (British Museum), Charles D'oyle's etching of 1827 (British Museum) and prof. Muntasir Mamoon's book.