"The water flows under the bridge and we pass above it ..." infrastructure, transport and state power: The bridges of Hyderabad city, India c. sixteenth to twentieth centuries.

The article focuses on the historical development of four bridges across the Musi River in Hyderabad, India, constructed between the late sixteenth and early twentieth centuries to address urban congestion and flooding that impeded transport and mobility. These bridges—Purana Pul (c. 1578), Oliphant/Chaderghat Bridge (c. 1830), Afzal Gunj Bridge/Naya Pul/Salar Jung Pul (c. 1859), and Musallam Jung Ka Pul (c. 1901)—were built under successive regimes including the Golconda sultans, the Nizams of Hyderabad, and British colonial officials, reflecting a complex interplay of indigenous and colonial state power. The bridges not only facilitated urban growth and connectivity between old and new city areas but also embodied social, political, and economic relationships, including private patronage and colonial influence. The Musi River’s environmental challenges, especially monsoon flooding, shaped the design and maintenance of these infrastructures, highlighting the bridges’ role as both technological solutions and symbolic sites of power and mobility in Hyderabad’s urban history.