Illustration: Maisha Syeda

Once upon a time, there were several waterways that ran through Dhaka, along with many bridges that went above. These bridges are now a distant past, almost unimaginable to our generation, but teasing enough to make the mind wonder about a cityscape that once was. 

To illustrate, the visual featured here -- taken from the book Glimpses of Old Dhaka by Syed Muhammed Taifoor (Second edition, 1956) -- has the caption, "Ruined bridge at Tantibazar-Nowabpur Road".   

Meanwhile, historian Ahmad Hasan Dani's book, Dacca: A Record of its Changing Fortunes, mentioned quite a few bridges of antiquity. 

He wrote, "A number of Mughal time bridges of camber type span over these city channels, among which the most important are Tanti Bazar bridge, Masandi bridge, Narinda bridge, Amir Khan's bridge, Srichak bridge, Babu Bazar bridge, Rai Saheb's Bazar bridge, Nazir Bazar bridge, Chand Khan's bridge at the Nazimuddin road."