Iron Bridge, Lucknow

Design by John Rennie

British civil engineer John Rennie, a consultant to the East India Company, designed the architectural aspects of the iron bridge of Lucknow around the same time he was working on the Waterloo Bridge in London.^[4][3] He modelled the Lucknow plan on a bridge he had designed over the River Witham at Boston, Lincolnshire, completed around 1803, noting that the latter had "since stood many severe trials, and proves perfectly stable".^[5][7][3] A key difference was his incorporation of elements "in the style of Indian architecture".^[5]

Additional input on the connection of the arched ribs came from the Butterley Company (later part of Jessop & Company) of Ripley, Derbyshire, while William Daniell contributed to the final ornamentation.^[3]

Manufacture by Butterley Ironworks

Between 1812 and 1814, the Butterley Ironworks cast more than 2,500 pieces for the bridge.^[3] The iron sections on two cargo ships from the port of Hull and arrived in Calcutta in 1816.^[3] An engineer Henry Jessop was charged with the assembly of the bridge in Lucknow.^[5] Of the 2,627 pieces that were offloaded, only 19 had arrived broken.^[4] At the time, it was the largest single manufactured export from Great Britain.^[3]

However, by the time the parts finally arrived in Lucknow, Saadat Ali Khan had died.^[3] His son and successor Ghazi-ud-Din Haidar Shah, the seventh nawab and first king of Awadh, opposed the entire project.^[3] Although the traditional explanation given is that Ghazi-ud-Din Haidar felt that his father's iron bridge project was unlucky,^[8] a more recent analysis suggests that he opposed the direct connection it would create between the British East India Company's Madiaon cantonment and the city of Lucknow.^[3]

The eighth nawab, his son Nasir-ud-Din Haidar Shah, directed his court engineer Sinclair to assemble and erect the iron bridge.^[9] The iron sections were stacked on the river bank, opposite the Residency of Awadh.^[9] Sinclair dug wells in the river bed and started sinking pillars for the foundation, but failed.^[9][5]

Construction and completion

In 1839, the ninth nawab of Awadh and uncle of his predecessor, Muhammad Ali Shah, allocated one lakh (100,000) rupees for the construction of the iron bridge that had been commissioned by his father, Saadat Ali Khan.^[10]

In October 1840, Lieutenant Cunningham observed that the Gomti River had risen 2 feet (0.61 m) higher than when the bridge had originally been designed, requiring the piers to be higher than planned.^[5] He noted that he would not be able to determine the best spot to erect the bridge until the tide was lower.^[5] He also mentioned that there was a shortage of timbers longer than 20 feet (6.1 m), which meant that construction of centerings for the bridge would be delayed.^[5] By 1844, the plan for building the foundations had been revised significantly, using the Indian system of well-foundations combined with modern piles that British engineers had been using in other projects, as well as the coffer dams Rennie had designed.^[5] Construction of the bridge took place from 1844 to 1845.^[5][6]

In 1845, the iron bridge of Lucknow was finally completed by Colonel Fraser of the Bengal Engineers during the reign of the tenth nawab and fourth king of Awadh, Amjad Ali Shah.^[3][6] At the time, it was one of three bridges on the Gomti River.^[11] The other two bridges were near the Macchi Mahal and the Nao Ka Pul pontoon bridge near Moti Mahal.^[11]

Indian rebellion of 1857

The iron bridge was 1⁄4 mile (0.40 km) from The Residency of Lucknow on the right bank of the Gomti River.^[12] During the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the iron bridge became a point of conflict between British forces and mutineers, as each side struggled for control over Lucknow.^[12]

On 30 June 1857, British forces led by Sir Henry Lawrence retreated via the iron bridge to the Residency following their defeat in the Battle of Chinhat.^[13] A company of infantry that had not been at Chinhat helped their escape by preventing rebel forces from crossing the bridge in pursuit.^[13][12]

On 29 September 1857, a detachment of British officers and soldiers from the 84th, 64th, and 32nd Regiments, and the 5th Fusiliers proceeded toward the iron bridge, stormed a house close to it, and destroyed a cannon which had been captured in Chinhat and used against them.^[13] Although they had initially driven rebel forces across the river, they failed to occupy the nearby houses; the houses were eventually retaken by returning rebels, who killed or wounded one-third of the British detachment and forced them to retreat.^[13]

On 11 March 1858, General James Outram led a corps of infantry, cavalry, and guns to Lucknow, with instructions to take control of both the iron bridge and the stone bridge over the River Gomti.^[12] He succeeded in taking command of the northern end of the iron bridge on the left bank.^[14] Outram proposed crossing the iron bridge toward the Residency, but was forbidden by the commander-in-chief to do so, "if he thought he would lose a single man".^[14] Instead, on 16 March 1858, Outram crossed the Gumti over a bridge of casks near the Sikandar Bagh and proceeded to the Residency to take the iron bridge in reverse.^[14]