Railway Bridge [Bombay area].--Photographer: Unknown Medium: Photographic print Date: 1855

A photograph of a view of the first railway bridge, near Bombay from the 'Vibart Collection of Views in South India' taken by an unknown photographer about 1855.India’s vast railway network is an enduring legacy of the East India Company. The first train departed on the 16th April 1853 from Bombay. The London Illustrated News said that the opening of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway was of much greater importance than British ‘victories in battlefields of Plassey, Assaye and Gujarath’. In 1853 there were 32kms of tracks in the country whereas by 1948 there were nearly 50,000kms.