READ BRIDGE, SINGAPORE
Read Bridge, originally known as Merchant Bridge, was renamed in honour of merchant and prominent resident in Singapore William H Read, who laid the first cylinder for the bridge in 1887. Crossing the Singapore River at the uppermost limit of Boat Quay, the bridge used to be where labourers and tongkang (small boats) rowers gathered to listen to Teochew storytellers. Part of the area around the bridge was locally known as cha chun tau, a jetty for tongkangs carrying firewood from Indonesia.
c.1911
19980005905 - 0051
R20/36
29579
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Robert Feingold Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore
This image is reproduced from a postcard borrowed from a collector
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