Punalur Suspension Bridge

The Punalur Suspension Bridge spans the Kallada River at Punalur. Travancore's chief engineers took more than six years to build it: Walthew Clarence Barton began the work and Albert Henry completed it in 1877. Some 400 ft long and hung in two spans, it is described as the first motorable bridge in South India and the region's only suspended-deck bridge. Its iron rods are anchored in four wells, each around 100 ft deep.

The bridge joined the forest bank to the town, and it was made to shake underfoot so that wild animals would be put off crossing. People are said to have been wary of it at first, so the engineer and his family went under it in a country boat while six elephants walked across. A concrete bridge took over the traffic in 1972. After a renovation with fresh Kambakom wood panels, night lamps and a park beside it, the old bridge reopened in 2018.