Halaba Steel Bridge

Halaba Steel Bridge

. Halaba Steel Bridge (Sinhala: හලාබ පාලම) Atha Mala Ella is a colonial-era iron bridge in Halaba village in Badulla District, Sri Lanka. Located 1.7 km southwest of the ancient Bogoda Wooden Bridge , it has been constructed across the Uma Oya stream connecting the Uva Paranagama and Hali-ela divisional secretariats. History The history of the Halaba Bridge runs back to the second half of the 19th century. A plaque on the bridge contains the following note; R. Brotherhood, Chippenham Works, 1867 The year mentioned in this note probably indicates the construction year of the bridge. It is said that the Chippenham Works of the British engineer Rowland Brotherhood (b. 1812-d.1883) was successful in winning orders to fabricate wrought iron bridges for Ceylon (present Sri Lanka) in the 1850s. During this period, complete bridge structures were exported to Ceylon and the bridge over the  Mahaweli Ganga River  at Gampola was one of the first contracts received by them. However, activity at the Chipp…