Napier Bridge

Napier Bridge
Napier Bridge
	A view of the Napier Bridge from Swami Sivanandha Salai
Coordinates	13°04′08″N 80°17′04″E / 13.0688°N 80.2845°E
Carries	6 lanes of traffic and pedestrians
Crosses	Cooum river
Locale	Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Characteristics
Material	Concrete
Longest span	138 m (452.8 ft)
History
Construction start	Originally built 1869, appended 1999
Location

Napier Bridge is a bridge in Chennai (Madras), India, built over the Coovum River connecting Fort St. George with the Marina beach. One of the city's oldest bridges, it was built in 1869 by Francis Napier who was the Governor of Madras from 1866 to 1872.

Alongside the iron bridge built in 1869, a new bridge was built in 1999 with a 10.5 m-wide carriageway on the western side. The eastern side carriageway is 9.75 m in width. The bridge is 138 m long with 6 spans (bowstrings) across the river near its mouth.^[1] It has 2-m wide footpaths.

As part of the Marina Beach beautification project, special lights have been fixed beneath the bridge providing a visual effect as if the bridge is floating on the river water. A combination of lighting effects has been created on the arches and surface using 464 bulbs and fixtures.^[2] The lights and fixtures covered the outer arch, inner arch, edge, bottom, road and pedestrian pathways of the bridge. The ₹ 16.2 million special lighting arrangement was inaugurated by the then Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, M. K. Stalin, on 27 July 2010.^[3]

The lighting designers for the bridge's new look was awarded to LDP Lighting of Sydney, Australia, who have also designed the lighting for the Erasmus Bridge Rotterdam,^[4] Sydney Harbour Bridge,^[5] and the Sydney Opera House.^[6] www.LDP.net