Fodor's Expert Review Howrah Bridge

One of the most enduring icons of the city, the Howrah Bridge was commissioned and built by the British between 1936 and 1943. The tall cantilevered bridge links Kolkata to Howrah and its bustling railway station, which serves as a gateway to the northeast of India. The web of girders stretches 1,500 feet over the Hooghly, crisscrossed with small and big fishing boats, ferries, and steamers. Now renamed Rabindra Setu, after Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, who hailed from the city, the Howrah Bridge has fascinated poets, painters, writers, filmmakers, and tourists.

Bordered by thin walkways, the bridge's eight lanes of chaotic traffic bear 2 million people each day in buses, rickshaws, cars, scooters, bicycles, and pushcarts. A walk across the bridge provides terrific people-watching.