The Iron Bridge across the Yamuna in Delhi is very old. It was built by the British in 1866 and facilitates train and vehicle movement across the Yamuna. It is also called Loha Pul. I remember crossing the Yamuna riding pillion behind my father on his scooter many years back. It was a bit scary. The river flows very close to the Iron Bridge. Rather, what is left of the Yamuna river. It was also very noisy if I remember it right.

The other day I was travelling along a section of the Ring Road that goes past the Iron Bridge and stopped to click a photo. I used my smartphone to click the photo. It is an amazing piece of architecture. I think there is a similar Iron Bridge across the Hooghly in Kolkatta and I’ve travelled across it. These are no Golden Gate bridges, yet, are quite exciting to cross. Now there are multiple bridges across the Yamuna. I can name a few. Nizamuddin bidge, ITO bridge, DND, Kalindi Kunj and the Geeta Colony Bridge apart from the Iron Bridge. In addition, there is the Blue Line of the Delhi Metro already operational across the Yamuna and the Pink Line of the Metro is inching towards completion to join up at the Mayur Vihar-1 station.

The iron bridge across the Yamuna and the other iron bridges in India are engineering marvels. Many of these have outlived bridges and flyovers constructed much later. Only time will tell whether those constructed later will have a longer life span.

The administration closes the Iron Bridge across the Yamuna when the water level in the river rises during the monsoons. I wonder which form of iron was used to build the bridge. Many new alloys have been invented and these should help increase the longevity of new construction.