Hardinge Bridge, Railway truss bridge in Paksey, Bangladesh
Hardinge Bridge is a railway crossing over the Padma River with fifteen steel truss sections that together span 1624 meters. Each truss rests on heavy concrete piers anchored deep into the riverbed, supporting the broad gauge tracks above.
The crossing opened on March 4, 1915, after three years of work involving 24,000 laborers under British rule. During the 1971 war, the twelfth span collapsed and was later rebuilt with Japanese help.
The name honors Viscount Hardinge, a British general, and reflects Bangladesh's colonial past, while the structure connects travelers between different parts of the country each day. Many villagers use the footpath alongside the tracks to reach markets or relatives on the opposite bank.
The crossing is built for railway trains only, but a narrow footpath runs along the downstream side for pedestrians. You can observe the Padma River crossing best from the riverbank or from nearby villages.
The firm Braithwaite, Burn & Jessop from Calcutta built the trusses, and the work faced delays from heavy monsoon floods. Today the structure carries many passenger and freight trains daily, even though it is over a century old.
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