Mumbai: Six historical Carnac bridge plaques reach CSMT museum

Historical plaques from the recently demolished Carnac bridge brought to CSMT’s Heritage Gully

Six 19th-century plaques of the demolished Carnac Bunder bridge arrived at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) Heritage Gully museum on Thursday. Central Railway Chief Public Relations Officer Shivaji Sutar said, "The bridge had basalt stones inscribed with the name of the bridge and year of construction on either end."

He added, "Due to the inscriptions which date back to 1858, the year the construction of the bridge was presumably started, Central Railway has preserved these stones at the Heritage Gully at CSMT on P D'Mello Road."

Historical plaques from the recently demolished Carnac Bridge are being brought to CSMT's Heritage Gully

Central Railway recently dismantled Carnac road overbridge, which was constructed between 1858 and 1868 between CSMT and Masjid railway station. The length and width of the seven-span steel structure were 50 metres and 18.8 metres respectively while its approximate weight was 450 tonnes.

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mid-day had been highlighting the need for saving the old plaques. Sources said the bridge was steeped in the city's history as it was one of the first east-west links across the erstwhile Great Indian Peninsula Railway (GIPR), now called Central Railway. The bridge has very important markings in Marathi, Gujarati and English with dates and name of the structure carved on all four sides.

The bridge was built decades after a road came up at the location in the 1840s. This street was built by an Indian entrepreneur Laxman Harishchandra Ajinkya, who was popularly known as Bhau, while he was constructing one of the first wharves of Bombay along the eastern shore.

1868
The year Carnac bridge was completed