The New Bridge at Benares.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 247, 17 March 1888, Page 8

The New Bridge at Benares.

The formal opening by the Viceroy of the great railway bridge across the Ganges at Benares was, the '1 Times of India " $ays, a memorable ceremony. The work has taken seven years to complete, and its accomplishment is one. o£ the grandest of the many grand, engineering triumphs achieved by British enterprise in India, The magnitude of- the task may be gauged from tho following figures : — The length of the bridge from end to end of the girders is 3,523 feet ; there are 16 spans, seven of 356 feet and nino of 114 feet ; tho piers of the larger spans are founded on elliptical wells 65 feob by 38 .feet ; the piers vary in depth from 65 feet to 152 feet below ground fevel ; the weight of the material used in one of the deep piers is [ about 16, 00ft bows; the total weight of the I steel girders, fa 6,405 tons. The main spans are the longest yet constructed in India without thfc use of the cantilever form of girders, and the foundations of some of the .main piers are the deepest in the world. The engineering problems that were presented, in fcke preparation of the design and in th# carrying , out of the work were of immeiwe difficulty. „A river, had fcbjbe spanned 3,QQO , fqett wide* , with .a bed t tio an unknown , $epth *of ,-pure. . sand.* qver\ wJatiolv fche level of the- water during ..the <jold weather months was about 37 ieet» rising daring floods to 92 f4et, with a vdtofeity of a'boVii 20 feet per 'second. In order, to j eivtf ample ' rooni for the^ ii** passage %f Hbdots,' oh* height of -tho structure, hhd [ to bd fixoa at 25 feet above 'the highest irecorded flood' level. « Tho undertaking cost altogether over 75 lakhs of £up««*> th« coiib per lineal foQb being re. 1,727. The first brick vraa laid on bho 19th January,

1882, and the bridge was ready far traffic* in October last, the work having been carried on all those years not only by day, but also by night, with the aid of the electric light, except during the very cold weather. The Benaro Bridge completes tho plan of the Oudh and Rohilkund Railway under the contract granted to the company 20 years ago. It brings Lucknow into" divect communication with Calcutta by a route 52 miles shorter than thafc via Cawnporo, all places north of Lucknow and between Lucknow and Benares participating in this greatad vantage. The bridge has been named after Lord Dufferin, and it i$ certain that no more splendid memorial ever handed down an Indian Viceroy's name to posterity. War has its glorious traditions: but the Dv fibrin Bridgo will speak to tho eye for, we trust, countless generations to come, and its contemplation by the natives ot India should prove in itself "a liberal education," showing them the marvellous ingenuity and the indomitable perseverance of the men to whoso lot has fallen the guiding of India's destinies.