Cavenagh Bridge is the only
suspension bridge
A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck (bridge), deck is hung below suspension wire rope, cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridg ...
and one of the oldest
bridge
A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...
s in
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
, spanning the lower reaches of the
Singapore River
The Singapore River is a river that flows parallel to Alexandra Road and feeds into the Marina Reservoir in the southern part of Singapore. The immediate upper watershed of the Singapore River is known as the Singapore River Planning Area, altho ...
in the
Downtown Core
The Downtown Core is the historical and downtown centre of the city-state of Singapore and the main commercial area in Singapore excluding reclaimed lands with many integrated resorts such as the Marina Bay Sands, one of the most expensive build ...
. Opened in 1869
to commemorate Singapore's new
Crown colony
A Crown colony or royal colony was a colony administered by The Crown within the British Empire. There was usually a Governor, appointed by the British monarch on the advice of the UK Government, with or without the assistance of a local Counci ...
of the
Straits Settlements
The Straits Settlements were a group of British territories located in Southeast Asia. Headquartered in Singapore for more than a century, it was originally established in 1826 as part of the territories controlled by the British East India Comp ...
status in 1867, it is the oldest bridge in Singapore that exists in its original form.
History
![Cavenagh Bridge 2012 0045](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Cavenagh_Bridge_2012_0045.jpg)
Originally known as the
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
Bridge to commemorate the visit of the
Duke of Edinburgh
Duke of Edinburgh, named after the city of Edinburgh in Scotland, was a substantive title that has been created three times since 1726 for members of the British royal family. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not produc ...
, its name was changed to Cavenagh Bridge in honour of
Major General
Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...
Orfeur Cavenagh, the last
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
-appointed
Governor of the Straits Settlements
The governor of the Straits Settlements was appointed by the British East India Company until 1867, when the Straits Settlements became a Crown colony. Thereafter the governor was appointed by the Colonial Office. The position existed from 1826 ...
, who governed from 1859 to 1867.
[G. Chandradas, Tien Chung Ping (21 August 2008). "Bridging the gap", The Straits Times.] The
coat of arms
A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...
of the Cavenagh family can still be seen atop the signage at both ends of the bridge.
Cavenagh Bridge linked the Civic District on the northern bank to the Commercial District on the southern bank of the Singapore River. Before Cavenagh Bridge was constructed, people could only move between the two districts via a
detour
__NOTOC__
A detour or (British English: diversion) is a (normally temporary) route taking traffic around an area of prohibited or reduced access, such as a construction site. Standard operating procedure for many roads departments is to route an ...
over
Elgin Bridge or by paying 1
duit
The duit (plural: ''duiten''; en , doit) was a copper Dutch coin worth 2 ''penning'', with 8 duit pieces equal to one ''stuiver'' and 160 duit pieces equal to one ''gulden''. In Dutch Indonesia 4 duit pieces were equal to one ''stuiver''. ...
(¼
cent) for a
boat
A boat is a watercraft of a large range of types and sizes, but generally smaller than a ship, which is distinguished by its larger size, shape, cargo or passenger capacity, or its ability to carry boats.
Small boats are typically found on inl ...
ride across the river.
This bridge has elaborate suspension
strut
A strut is a structural component commonly found in engineering, aeronautics, architecture and anatomy. Struts generally work by resisting longitudinal compression, but they may also serve in tension.
Human anatomy
Part of the functionality o ...
s in comparison with most other
suspension bridges
A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck is hung below suspension cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridges, which lack vertical ...
, and is the third bridge to be built in Singapore. It was constructed in 1869 to allay the inconvenience of crossing the Singapore River by boat. Numerous
steel
Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...
rivets were used in its construction, which employed steel
casting
Casting is a manufacturing process in which a liquid material is usually poured into a mold, which contains a hollow cavity of the desired shape, and then allowed to solidify. The solidified part is also known as a ''casting'', which is ejected ...
methods commonly used during that era.
The bridge was designed by the colonial
Public Works Department
This list indicates government departments in various countries dedicated to public works or infrastructure.
See also
* Public works
* Ministry or Board of Public Works, the imperial Chinese ministry overseeing public projects from the Tang ...
's
John Turnbull Thomson
John Turnbull Thomson (10 August 1821 – 16 October 1884) was a British civil engineer and artist who played an instrumental role in the development of the early infrastructure of nineteenth-century Singapore and New Zealand. He lived the last 2 ...
and constructed by the P&W Maclellan, Glasgow Engineers at a cost of
Straits $80,000. Built and tested in Glasgow to withstand a load four times its own weight, it was shipped to Singapore in parts and reassembled in 1869 by convict labour before opening to traffic a year later.
Rickshaws
A rickshaw originally denoted a two- or three-wheeled passenger cart, now known as a pulled rickshaw, which is generally pulled by one person carrying one passenger. The first known use of the term was in 1879. Over time, cycle rickshaws (also ...
and
ox carts
A cart or dray (Australia and New Zealand) is a vehicle designed for transport, using two wheels and normally pulled by one or a pair of draught animals. A handcart is pulled or pushed by one or more people.
It is different from the flatbed tr ...
used the Cavenagh Bridge to cross
Singapore River
The Singapore River is a river that flows parallel to Alexandra Road and feeds into the Marina Reservoir in the southern part of Singapore. The immediate upper watershed of the Singapore River is known as the Singapore River Planning Area, altho ...
. Subsequently, the bridge became overloaded due to the flourishing
trade
Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market.
An early form of trade, barter, saw the direct excha ...
on the Singapore River in the late 1880s.
![CavenaghSign](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/CavenaghSign.JPG)
When Cavenagh Bridge became unable to cope with the increasing
traffic
Traffic comprises pedestrians, vehicles, ridden or herded animals, trains, and other conveyances that use public ways (roads) for travel and transportation.
Traffic laws govern and regulate traffic, while rules of the road include traffic ...
into town and its low
draught was insufficient for the passage of boats at
high tide
Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another.
Tide tables c ...
, the government decided to build the
Anderson Bridge in 1910 to replace Cavenagh Bridge. Cavenagh Bridge was eventually spared from
demolition
Demolition (also known as razing, cartage, and wrecking) is the science and engineering in safely and efficiently tearing down of buildings and other artificial structures. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a ...
and was converted to a
pedestrian
A pedestrian is a person traveling on foot, whether walking or running. In modern times, the term usually refers to someone walking on a road or pavement, but this was not the case historically.
The meaning of pedestrian is displayed with ...
bridge, with the road traffic diverted to the Anderson Bridge. A
police
The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and t ...
notice, which is still preserved until today, was thus erected at both ends of the bridge restricting the passage of vehicles that weighed beyond 3
cwt (152 kilograms or 336 pounds), including
cattle
Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult mal ...
and horses. The sign reads:
:POLICE NOTICE
:CAVENAGH BRIDGE
:THE USE OF THIS BRIDGE IS PROHIBITED TO ANY VEHICLE OF WHICH THE LADEN WEIGHT EXCEEDS 3 CWT. AND TO ALL CATTLE AND HORSES
:BY ORDER
:CHIEF POLICE OFFICER.
Cavenagh Bridge today
Cavenagh Bridge is currently a pedestrian bridge, with lighting added in 1990 to accentuate its architectural features at nightfall.
[ It now provides the most convenient pedestrian link between the cultural district at the north bank and the commercial district to the south of the Singapore River, and complements the renovated Fullerton Hotel (previously Fullerton Building) which is sited beside the bridge.
There are numerous ]sculpture
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
works near the Cavenagh Bridge, including a family of Singapura cats (''kucinta'' or drain cats), recognised as one of the smallest breeds of cat
The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...
s in the world, located at the southwest abutment.
On 3 November 2008, the bridge was selected for conservation as part of the Urban Redevelopment Authority
The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) is the national urban planning authority of Singapore, and a statutory board under the Ministry of National Development of the Government of Singapore.
Mission
The authority was established on 1 Apri ...
's expanded conservation programme. It was subsequently upgraded to a national monument
A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure.
The term may also refer to a spec ...
, planned in the early 2010s and announced in 2019 by Deputy Prime Minister
A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, ...
Heng Swee Keat
Heng Swee Keat (; born 15 April 1961) is a Singaporean politician, former police officer and civil servant who has been serving as Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore since 2019 and Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies since 2020 and als ...
. The historical significance is the old police signboard and the physical bridge where Singaporeans had walked past through, even during Lee Kuan Yew's lying-in-state on March 2015.
See also
*Chong Fah Cheong
Chong Fah Cheong () is a Singaporean sculptor known for many public sculptures in Singapore. He is considered as one of Singapore’s pioneer sculptors and was awarded the Cultural Medallion, Singapore's pinnacle arts award in 2014. Though he w ...
*List of bridges in Singapore
This is a list of flyovers, bridges and viaducts in Singapore, including those for pedestrians and vehicular traffic.
In Singapore, a "flyover" is an overpass that crosses over another road, while a "bridge" is a structure that crosses a body o ...
*The Fullerton Hotel
The Fullerton Hotel Singapore is a five-star luxury hotel located near the mouth of the Singapore River, in the Downtown Core of the Central Area, Singapore. It was originally known as the Fullerton Building, and also as the General Post Offi ...
References
*Ilsa Sharp, (2005), ''The Journey - Singapore's Land Transport Story'', SNP: Editions,
*Peter K G Dunlop (2000), ''Street Names of Singapore'', Who's Who Publishing,
*
External links
{{Authority control
Bridges completed in 1869
Downtown Core (Singapore)
Suspension bridges in Singapore
National monuments of Singapore
1869 establishments in the British Empire