Kallady Bridge is one of the oldest bridges built during the colonial era, and it's the landmark of Batticaloa. The Batticaloa lagoon was obstructive to the traveling towards the southern part of Batticaloa in the ancient Batticaloa. People used small boats to cross over the lagoon to travel the south part of Batticaloa by paying one cent for boat fare during the early days. Later, one Mr.Maniyathar, the boat owner, used an engine boat to transport people and other commodities. In 1924 the construction work was started for a bridge, and it was completed in 1928. It was ceremonially inaugurated by the then governor of Sri Lanka, Hon. Sir Manning and his wife, Lady Manning. As anticipated by the construction engineers, the bridge's lifetime was 1928-1985, but the bridge was in use up to 2013. A new bridge along the old one was built by the government of Sri Lanka and was ceremonially opened by the then president Hon. Mahinda Rajapaksha on 13th March 2013.
Even though the Kallady Bridge was a landmark of Batticaloa, it should be mentioned if it had a heart-touching history. This bridge has been a famous suicidal point for a long time. There was a heartbreaking story about the fact. One Maheswary, a Tamil girl, fell in love with Meera Mohideen. Both parents were deadly against this love affair owing to the reason of ethnicity and religion. As a result of the family opposition, the couple decided to end their life, so they chose the Kallady Bridge and jumped into the lagoon. That was the first suicide case recorded in this bridge. After that, most of the love failures ended up their lives in the Kallady Bridge. However, this has been settled now since there is a safety patrol with motor boats assigned by the government bodies to save the suicide attempters. They are taken under the custody of mental health officials to obtain psychological support.
Researches prove that the eel fish in the river beds can feel global warming and emerge to the water level. It was evident during the 2004 Tsunami tidal waves and 2013 flood in the Eastern Part of Sri Lanka. Also, there has been an assumption that these eels come every year in little amounts to breed into the lagoon from the sea, owing to this lagoon's salinity.
Certain shark species also migrate to the Batticaloa lagoon during the laying season under the bridge and are known to be using the bridge's pillars to rub their bellies when giving birth for the offspring. The bar mouth is also made natural to allow sharks to get into the lagoon from the sea. Nowadays, the edges of this bridge is used by local rural farmers, mostly women, to sell their organic products.
