Across the ferry at "Kattoogastotte"

When a Governor danced on a bridge

By Padma Edirisinghe

The newly built Katugastota bridge was opened for traffic during the governorship of Henry Ward at the Northern End of the picturesque hill city of Mahanuwara. Today it is back in the news in the context of the envisaged re-construction project by the President.

About 150 years ago in 1856 after its construction there had been great rejoicing in the hill capital followed by a sumptuous dinner and a dance in which the governor himself participated.

A census of traffic taken in 1904 reads as follows

1 carriage & pair

18 single horse carriages

4 two-wheeled horse carriages

1 horse

12 rickshaws

5 bicycles

9 Hackery buggies

1 Hackery

48 double bullock carts (loaded) & 30 double bullock carts (unloaded 10 single bullock carts (loaded) & 6 single bullock carts (unloaded)

34 oxen

1 buffalo

6525 Pedestrians

One can visualize the bullock carts, the hackeries, the rickshaws trail languidly along the original bridge open to traffic in 1856 in Governor Ward's time. Said to be an occasion of great rejoicing. Governor Henry Ward's minute reads,

"I had the pleasure of opening the Kattogasttota bridge in the presence of the largest concourse of Europeans and natives, that was ever brought together in the Central Province .... The undertaking is one that no changes in the internal communications of the Island can affect, short of the entire trade of Trincomalee and even the communication between Kandy and Matale.....when Colombo is the port of shipment for the whole of Central Province."
 

This bridge, one of the most famous in the Island, substituted the ferry service which even at its optimum regulated running had caused much delays and losses for planters of the Central highlands.

After the opening ceremony it is said that 250 guests sat down to a 'Dejenear Diaatoire' followed by a dance on the bridge in which H. E, Governor Henry Ward too took part.

The Kandy-Matale road itself was opened in 1831, which feat commenced the gradual abolition of compulsory labour in Ceylon. This is notified in acircular dated 12th November 1851 signed by P. Anthruther, Deputy Secretary to Government.

'You will not hereafter consider yourself at liberty to exact the gratuitous labour of any person'.

The Governorship of Sir Henry Ward (1855 - 1860) saw great progress in the development of the Island's communications.

The opening of the electric telegraph to Kandy and Mannar and deposition of the cable between Ceylon and India at the Pamban Straits were other achievements. With remarkable foresight Ward observed the immense significance of the site of the Ferry service at 'Katugasttotta' as regards the economy and communications of the country and hastened the construction of the bridge.

In his submission of urgency of this plan, he writes, 'At Katugastotta, a little above the present ferry nature itself has made provision for the erection of a bridge by a reef of rocks presenting every facility for the piers and an abundant supply of stone for the abutments.

It is proposed to construct here an iron lattice bridge, 420 feet in span ....' a more useful and comprehensive scheme has seldom been submitted to a Colonial Legislature.

Foremost among the backstage workers of this massive iron and steel structure that yet spans the Mahaweli like a shining black giant, is the great Engineer, Major Thomas Skinner. Another was Caley, who is responsible for the curious emblem on the tablet placed in 1856 when the bridge was opened for traffic, which reads Sir H. G. Ward, GCMG. Governor, this work was begun 1st September, 1858 and opened to traffic, 1st March, 1860.

The monogram, beneath this reading is said to be similar to the national emblem of the isle of Man, a sign of Pre-Roman Celtic origin.

Caley, an engineer who worked on the bridge was the youngest son of a member of an old family who had lived in the isle of Man for many generations and Caley inserted his national emblem in the tablet of the 'Katugastotte bridge'. Of much mention in this feat is also a local person, Moothiya Pillai Wellopillay, Mudaliyar, a scion of an old Tamil family claiming royal descent, and a handsome six-footer.

On completion of the bridge he was made a Mudaliyar of the Governor's Gate and presented a Gold Medal.

He is said to have died on his horse, enroute to Jaffna.

The two other tablets alongside the bridge carry 5 names of these Engineers and pioneers who built such a massive structure in a matter of two years in a background of paucity of plant and qualified labour. The 5 are Major Thomas Skinner (Commissioner of Public Works), J. A. Caley, W. Lappen, J. Robertson and M. Wellopulley (Division Pioneer.)

The bridge has been reconstructed and repaired from time to time since 1856, the year in which our longest river Mahaweli started rolling down under this amazing complicated structure of iron and steel that rovolutionized the communication arena of the North of Mahanuwara in the 19th Century that had hitherto depended on the slow and languid Ferry Service at a 'Thota' (crossing) surrounded by thorny trees (Katugas), hence 'Katugasthota'.