The history of the Nine Arch Bridge

The Nine Arch Bridge exists because the British colonial government wanted the main hill country railway to reach Badulla, the provincial capital of Uva and the centre of a rich tea and coffee district. The line had climbed from Colombo through Kandy and Nanu Oya over several decades, and the final stretch from Ella eastwards had to cross deep, wooded valleys.

Between Ella and Demodara the line needed to span one such valley without steep gradients. A viaduct was the answer, and the result is the curved, nine-arched bridge visitors see today, with the railway sweeping round the hillside at each end.

The bridge was never designed as a landmark. It was a working piece of engineering on a freight and passenger line, and its fame as a viewpoint is much more recent than the railway itself.

The Nine Arch Bridge is built of brick, stone and cement, with no steel in the main structure, and that is what makes it distinctive. Many railway bridges of the period used steel girders, but this one relies entirely on masonry arches, like a much older style of viaduct.

A popular story says steel ordered for the bridge was diverted to the British war effort during the First World War, forcing the builders to use local materials instead. The story is widely repeated and plausible, but it is hard to confirm from records, so treat it as tradition rather than fact.

Whatever the reason, the masonry has lasted a century in a wet, steep valley, carrying trains every day, which says a good deal about the quality of the work.

Local tradition credits the Nine Arch Bridge to a Sri Lankan builder, P. K. Appuhami, said to have worked with local labour and materials. Some versions of the story say British engineers doubted the bridge would hold until it carried its first trains. Like the steel story, it is told with conviction in Ella but is difficult to document fully.

What is clear is that large numbers of local workers built the hill country railways, often in difficult and dangerous conditions. Remembering them is part of the bridge's story, and a fair counterweight to the colonial framing that dominates many accounts.

The Nine Arch Bridge is one of several pieces of engineering on the final stretch of line from Ella to Badulla. A few kilometres on, at Demodara, the railway loops round a hill and passes beneath itself to lose height in a tight space. The line reached Badulla in the mid-1920s (hedged), completing the route from Colombo.

Today the bridge carries the same trains that run the famous Kandy to Ella stretch, continuing to Demodara and Badulla. Watching one cross the arches, or riding across yourself, connects the visit to the railway's original purpose.

The railway is still a working line, so the history is not just in the past. Walking on the tracks is risky and in places prohibited, and visitors should stay well clear when a train approaches.

The best way to appreciate the Nine Arch Bridge's history is to look at it from more than one angle: from the hillside viewpoint for the full curve, from track level for the masonry, and from below for the height of the arches. Each shows a different side of the engineering.

Lankan Stays & Trails guides often walk guests to the bridge and on to Demodara, telling the railway's story along the way. If you go alone, allow roughly an hour or more, and ask at Ella station about crossing times before you set out.

Combine the bridge with a ride on the line to Badulla for the full picture: the loop at Demodara is far easier to understand from the train window than from a map.