New Bridge Road (; ms, Jalan Jambatan Baharu) is a major one-way

road A road is a linear way for the conveyance of traffic that mostly has an improved surface for use by vehicles (motorized and non-motorized) and pedestrians. Unlike streets, the main function of roads is transportation. There are many types of ...

located within the Central Area 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 ...

. New Bridge Road starts at the

Coleman Bridge The George P. Coleman Memorial Bridge (known locally as simply the Coleman Bridge) is a double swing bridge that spans the York River between Yorktown and Gloucester Point, in the United States state of Virginia. It connects the Peninsula and ...

to the south 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 ...

and extends into

Chinatown A Chinatown () is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Austra ...

within the Outram Planning Area, before joining with

Eu Tong Sen Street Eu Tong Sen Street () is a one-way road located in the central part of Singapore in the planning areas of Outram, Singapore River and Bukit Merah. The road starts at the junction of Hospital Drive, Kampong Bahru Road and New Bridge Road, and e ...

and Kampong Bahru Road within the Bukit Merah Planning Area. The road runs

parallel Parallel is a geometric term of location which may refer to: Computing * Parallel algorithm * Parallel computing * Parallel metaheuristic * Parallel (software), a UNIX utility for running programs in parallel * Parallel Sysplex, a cluster of ...

to Eu Tong Sen Street throughout its entire length, but in the opposite direction. With the opening of the North East Line, there were plans to revert the New Bridge Road portion between Clarke Quay and Upper Cross Street into one-way street in 2003 after 11 years, but this never come to fruition. Today, two stations plies along the stretch -

Clarke Quay MRT station Clarke Quay MRT station is an underground Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station on the North East line in Singapore River planning area, Singapore, located underneath Eu Tong Sen Street and New Bridge Road near the junctions of Merchant Road and ...

and

Chinatown MRT station Chinatown MRT station is an underground Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) interchange station on the North East (NEL) and Downtown (DTL) lines in Outram, Singapore. It serves the ethnic enclave of Chinatown. Situated at the junction of Eu Tong Sen ...

Etymology and history

After the completion of the

over the

in 1840, New Bridge Road was built in 1842 linked to the bridge on the south bank of the river. It was named as such due to the newly completed bridge connected to it. In Hokkien, the road was also known as ''sin pa sat ma chu cheng'', meaning "in front of the new market police station", ''ji ma lo'', or "second horse way". In Cantonese, it was also known as ''Yi-ma-lo'', which means “second horse way” also. The early main business along New Bridge Road and Wayang Street (now defunct and part of

) was the fruit and vegetable trade by the Teochews. Due to the Singapore River being part of the trading business, New Bridge Road became one of the major trading areas for the Chinese.

Notable landmarks

One of the earliest public parks in Singapore, Dunman's Green, named after the first Superintendent of Police

Thomas Dunman Thomas Dunman (1814-1887) was an Englishman during the British Colonial period. He arrived in the Straits Settlements and the Crown Colony of Singapore from England. Dunman was the first Commissioner of Police (Singapore), Commissioner of Police i ...

, was built along New Bridge Road. In 1876, it was renamed as Hong Lim Green in honour of

Cheang Hong Lim Cheang Hong Lim JP (1825 – 11 February 1893) was a Chinese opium merchant and philanthropist in Singapore. He was recognised by the British colonial administration as head of the local Hokkien Chinese community. Biography Cheang was born to ...

, a wealthy Chinese Hokkien businessman and philanthropist who bought and donated the land to the government. Hong Lim Green was then refurbished by the

City Council of Singapore The City Council of Singapore was the administrative council of the City of Singapore responsible for the provision of water, electricity, gas, roads and bridges and street lighting. It was dissolved in 1959 when Singapore attained self-governanc ...

with new grass turf, a sand filled children's playground, a fountain, park facilities, and an open-air theatre was built at a cost of S$173,000, it was renamed to Hong Lim Park and officially reopened by

S. Rajaratnam Sinnathamby Rajaratnam ( ta, சின்னத்தம்பி ராஜரத்னம்; 25 February 1915 – 22 February 2006), better known as S. Rajaratnam, was a Singaporean politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of Singapo ...

on 23 April 1960.

References

Roads in Singapore Bukit Merah Outram, Singapore Singapore River Chinatown, Singapore {{Singapore-road-stub

Etymology and history

Notable landmarks

See also

References