Leviticus
The Bridge of Adam , Bridge of Râma or Setubandha , is a chain of sand banks extending from the island of Mannar, close to the coast of the North-West of Sri Lanka in the island of Pamban where the town of Râmeshvaram is, on the Côte of Coromandel, in the Tamil Nadu, and located between the gulf of Manaar at south-west and the Détroit of Palk at the North-East. Length of about thirty kilometers, it causes an unquestionable embarrassment for the Navigation. Some of the sand banks are emergent and no part of the bench has a depth of more than 1,2 m with high Marée, except three channels difficult to cross, but which avoid making the turn of the island of Ceylon.
Geological indices would seem to show that, in the past, the bridge of Adam was a continuous Isthme. Chronicles would indicate that a breach would have been open in the bridge, in 1480, by a violent storm.
As of 1838, work was carried out to try to improve navigation between the sand banks. Around 1910, there was an attempt by the South Indian Railway to build a direct railway bond from India to Ceylon, by establishing a Viaduc, but it was never concluded its.
There was however a rail link, the Indo-Ceylon express train , between India and Sri Lanka until in 1965, connecting Madras to Colombo, with a part by boat. This year, a cyclone destroyed most of the way with Dhanushkodi. Since this damage were never repaired and today the ways stop close to Râmeshvaram.
The bridge of Adam is also named bridge of Râma because it is known as in the Râmâyana which it was built to allow Râma to reach the island of Lanka where his wife Sitâ was captive of the king demon Râvana.
In 2002, satellite images of NASA showing the materiality of the isthmus had a so great repercussion in India that its door word made the following statement:
- “the images can be ours, but their interpretation is certainly not ours of the images of teledetection or of the photographs since the orbit cannot provide direct information about the origin or of the age of a string of islands, and do not certainly indicate so the human ones were implied in the production of this structure. ”
Recently, the Indian government approved the Sethusamudram Ship Canal Project aiming at creating a channel for the ships through the strait of Palk. It is envisaged to dredge the shallow waters oceanic close to Danushkodi, the ultimate village Indian at the end of the peninsula, so as to create a protected space making it possible boats to rather pass by this channel than to have to sail round the island of Sri Lanka, thus avoiding the 30 hours of navigation corresponding to these 400 kilometers of skirting. A project of this kind had been conceived for the first time by the commander A.D. Taylor of the Indian Marines in 1860 and had been considered several times since.
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