Blueprints of defunct Abul Ella Bridge may be nucleus of proposed engineering archive center

Abul Ella Bridge was one of the landmarks of Cairo that used to link the posh district of Zamalek to the popular area of Boulaq Abul Ella. The iron-made bridge, which was built in the period between 1908 and 1913 was dismantled at the end of the 90s of the 20th century to be replaced by another more modern one to serve the ever-increasing traffic.

The bridge was unique in its design and it was believed to be designed by Gostave Eiffel who built Eiffel Tower. But it has been lately proved that a French company had designed and built the bridge.

Dr. Fathi Saleh Director of a the National Centre for Documentation of Cultural Heritage suggests the establishment of an archive center for architectural and engineering blueprints taking the 300 blueprints of Abul Ella Bridge found at the French company as the nucleus for the centre.

Dr. Saleh explains that while assuming his post in Paris as the Cultural Counsellor in the Egyptian Embassy, the Arab Contractors, the company assigned to disjoin the bridge to build the new one asked him to find any information about the bridge. The only piece of information obtained was the name of the designing company which was located at Lille, an industrial area famous for the manufacture of metal structures. But the company had been already amalgamated in larger institution taking a different name.

"Paying a visit to the archives of the company, it turned out that it included not only the blueprints of Abul Ella Bridge, but also those of Zamalek Bridge, Kasr El Nile Bridge, Al Galaa Bridge, Al Mansura and the second stage of Seka Al Hadid Bridge at Imbaba,' said Dr Saleh.

The archive of the company stationed in Leon included hundreds of blueprints with sizes ranging between 50 x 70 cm and 1 x 1.5m signed by Egyptian officials at the time. The designs dated back to the first and second decades. But the lion's share of these blueprints belonged to Abul Ella Bridge,' said Dr. Saleh.