Vidyasagar Setu (The Second Bridge)

Completed 1992, named for reformer Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar: a cable-stayed bridge, structurally unrelated to Howrah Bridge’s cantilever form, its two pylons and radiating stay cables producing a distinct late-20th-century geometry. Less iconic, lacking Howrah Bridge’s eighty years of accumulated meaning, but elegant at night from Prinsep Ghat. Its main span, 457 metres, is almost identical to Howrah Bridge’s 457.2: the same river, the same distance, fifty years apart, two unrelated engineering answers.