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Romance of Bridges, Lansdowne and Ayub bridge at Sukkur, Pakistan



Photo by Wikipedia

When travelling from Lahore towards Karachi you have to cross one of the bridge named Ayub bridge or Lansdowne Bridge standing tall with mighty Indus flowing beneath and giving a beautiful view at the time of sunset.
       Before the era of bridges traffic between Rohri and Sukkur was done via boats for crossing the Great Indus River. However in 1887 when Attock was connected to Khyber with help of a bridge for rail traffic, shortly after that Lansdowne Bridge started working, to help connect Karachi port on Arabian Sea  with Lahore.
         Intial works started in 1870s, it was not an easy task because of the slit in the river bed, design was made in such a way that bridge was made to be without pillars. Another interesting point is that at Sukur River gets divided in to two channels because of an Island named Bukkur Island. Tons of steel was transported from London to karachi port and from Karachi to Rohri and Sukur. And finally in 1889 bridge was inaugurated by Governer of Bombay Lord Reay on behalf of viceroy Lord Lansdowne.
        After almost 70 years of service in 1960 Government of Pakistan decided to build another bridge at the same location about 100 feet away from Lansdowne bridge. From a distance both bridges seems to be one.
        Ayub bridge was designed as an arch bridge because of slit problem in the river bed. It was first bridge in the world at that time to have railway desk slung on coiled wire rope suspenders and third longest arch span bridge in the world.
        Construction work started in 1960 by the contracter M/S Dorman Long Gammon from London who was famous for Sydney Harbour bridge. Engenier was DB Steinman of New York who was known for Brooklyn Bridge in New York. In 1962 President Ayub Khan Inaugurated the bridge and rail traffic was shifted to Ayub Bridge while Lansdowne is now used for road transport.
          Since than both bridges are standing tall with Mighty Indus flowing beneath and giving a beautiful view at the time of sunset.

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