Cavenagh Bridge: A Structure of Firsts and Lasts

Just a short voyage downstream from Marina Bay, there is a footbridge that crosses over the murky waters of the Singapore River. This structure connects the downtown of Singapore to it’s governmental centre, allowing for tourists to easily get from the mighty Merlion Statue to the nation’s House of Parliament and Asian Civilisation’s Museum in no time. This humble overpass, named Cavenagh Bridge, is a product of it’s time, and notably stands out as an antique of infrastructure when compared to the surrounding hotels, shops and buildings erected in the modern era which easily dwarf it in size and technological marvel. But Cavenagh Bridge remains a testament to the change that Singapore has gone through in its journey from humble port city to twenty-first century technological hub. Embedded within it’s creation and display are firsts and lasts from the history of Singapore that paint a vivid picture of how Singapore’s society has evolved and provides tourists a small time warp to what life was like in Colonial Singapore. 

Cavenagh Bridge was built from 1867 to 1869, in order to ease transportation between the growing colony’s political district on the northern bank and the enterprising commercial shops of the Southern shore. Before the construction of the bridge, people wishing to cross the river would either have to pay for a boat ride or walking a long circular detour to cross the busy Elgin bridge. In response to these difficulties, Cavenagh bridge was commissioned and designed by public works architect John Turnbull Thomson. The bridge was initially designed, constructed and tested in Glasgow, Scotland. For the cost of 80,000 straits dollars, engineers half the world away built the bridge to bear loads four times it’s weight, assembling it for initial test crossings before sending the disassembled parts to Singapore for construction. 

Here we approach the bridge’s primary first. Cavenagh Bridge stands as the first and only suspension bridge in all of Singapore, as well as the oldest bridge to still be used in it’s original, unaltered form. Suspension bridges use cables and vertical suspenders to bear the weight of people and loads crossing them. These types of bridges are generally used to facilitate the crossing of bodies of water, particularly being popular in the nineteenth century due to the great difficulty that was present in the building of infrastructure underwater. Whilst this design is unique, it came with very specific limitations. For example, Cavenagh Bridge was deliberately designed as narrow to limit the amount of carts and carriages that could cross it at any one time, thus keeping the bridge within it’s maximum weight bearing limit. Yet, this caused bottle-necking of traffic in busy hours, and subsequently in 1910 the bridge was converted into a solely pedestrian crossing and usage, as indicated by the below sign, was limited to humans and light rickshaws. 

The name of the structure was initially supposed to be Edinburgh Bridge, honouring a visit to Singapore made by the Duke of Edinburgh in 1869 just before the structure’s assembly. It was decided however, that the bridge would be better named in honour of one of Singapore’s lasts. William Orfeur Cavenagh was the Governor of the Straits Settlements from 1859 to 1867. Whilst his service in this role was fairly routine, Cavenagh served as the final Governor to be appointed by British politicians in India, as authority over Singapore and the other Straits Settlements was held by the British Raj until 1867. Cavenagh answered directly to the Governor-General of India in Calcutta and finished his service the same year that the Straits Settlements became a Crown Colony whose control fell directly under the crown in London rather than it’s representative in the Raj. It was decided that Cavenagh’s service was an important finale to a chapter in Singapore’s history, and as such the bridge should be named in his honour as symbolic recognition of those who held the role of Governor under the command of Calcutta. Cavenagh’s family crest can be observed on the top of the bridge as well as a sign detailing the length of his rule. 

Upon the bridge’s arrival in Singapore, another last of the island was undertaken. From 1825, the year in which Singapore first fell under the authority of India, until 1873, the bulk of Singapore’s public works labour force was made up of Indian convicts, generally revolutionaries or criminals who were sent to the port city to build up it’s infrastructure. These convicts took part in the construction of government buildings, lighthouses, places of worship, prisons and were even sent to assist on Tiger hunts when the beasts would be spotted near the island’s metropolitan centres. However, as the Raj lost authority over Singapore, and the local population of Chinese migrant workers requested more labour employment opportunities, the arrival of Indian convicts gradually stopped. 

These workers would undertake their final major public work in 1869 as they assembled Cavenagh Bridge. Numerous trained convicts laid steel rivets across the length of the bridge to secure it’s position as other hauled up the heavy suspension cables necessary to keep the bridge standing. 

Cavenagh Bridge was listed as a national monument of Singapore in 2019, as it’s significance of firsts and lasts was recognised. As a piece of engineering it remains unique amongst the island for its structure and design, and its overall construction is a testament to the labour of an often forgotten demographic present within the colony. This overpass will conveniently take you across the north and south banks of Singapore, and makes for a very peaceful stroll, but whilst walking across it I would encourage pedestrians to take a moment to recognise how Cavenagh Bridge stands as a monument to the inception and culmination of important factors in this nation’s colonial era. 

Sources: 

https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_2_2004-12-17.html

https://biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/vol-11/issue-3/oct-dec-2015/convict