Katugastota Old Bridge

Katugastota Old Bridge

Katugastota Old Bridge (Sinhala: කටුගස්තොට පැරණි පාලම) is an iron bridge built over the Mahaweli Ganga River  in Katugastota town in Kandy District, Sri Lanka. History By replacing an existing ferry service, this bridge was built over the Mahaweli Ganga River by the British in the 19th century to connect the areas of Matale, Panwila, Kabaragala, Rangala, Knuckles , and Kurunegala with the city of Kandy (Abeyawardana, 2004; Jayasinghe, 2021). According to the plaque fixed on the bridge, the construction work of the bridge was initiated by the British Governor Sir Henry Ward (In office: 1855-1860 A.D.) in September 1858 and was completed in March 1860 (Abeyawardana, 2004; Karunananda et al., 2017). The plaque reads; SIR H.G. WARD G.C.M.G. GOVERNOR  __ THIS WORK WAS BEGUN 1ST SEPTEMBER 1858 AND OPENED TO TRAFFIC 1ST MARCH 1860 J.A. Caley was the Chief Engineer during the construction of the bridge (Jayasinghe, 2021). Designed in the style of an iron garage, the bridge had three sections of 140…