Elgin Bridge on the Singapore River

 

 

As it is with every major city in the world, Singapore also has a river that flows through it and the river pretty much sculpted the  way of life in it. The mouth of the Singapore River was the old Port of Singapore, being naturally sheltered by the southern islands. Historically, the city of Singapore initially grew around the port so the river mouth became the centre of trade, commerce and finance. To this day, area around the old Singapore River mouth, the Downtown Core, remains the most expensive and economically important piece of land in Singapore.

Whereas the original mouth of the Singapore River emptied into Singapore Straits and its southern islands before major land reclamation took place, the Singapore River now empties into Marina Bay - an area of water partially enclosed by the reclamation work.The Port of Singapore is now located to the west of the island, using most of the south-west coast, and passenger ships to Singapore now typically berth at the Singapore Cruise Centre at HarbourFront. Thus the Singapore River's economic role has shifted away from one that of trade, towards more a role accommodated for tourism and aesthetics for the commercial zone which encloses it.

And that leaves us with a ton of bumboats "cruising" along the river. Although I have never been a big fan of them, their streaks of light do add some aesthetics to my shot. So they aren't too bad after all :)

If you move around Singapore, the Elgin bridge is certainly of those "trademark" spots that you could identify the city state. It is probably the most historically significant bridge on the island.

Elgin Bridge is believed to have existed at its current location as an unnamed footbridge as early as 1819, the year Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles landed on Singapore. It was the only bridge across the Singapore River, linking the Chinese community on the southern side to the Indian merchants of High Street on the northern side.

The existing bridge was completed in 1929 and named after Lord Elgin, a former Governor-General of India from the previous century. As this was the first bridge across the river, the two roads leading to it were named North Bridge Road and South Bridge Road accordingly.

(Some text courtesy of Wikipedia)