Bridge over the Sutlej at Wangtoo

This chromolithograph is taken from plate 14 of William Simpson's 'India: Ancient and Modern'. This fine view shows the Himalayan foothills dwarfing the Wangtu bridge, which is at the start of the Kinnaur district in present-day Himachal Pradesh. Simpson wrote that this bridge was "one of the largest of its kind in the Himalayas ... the locality is a very wild one, and the river, which is of a dirty grey colour from the debris carried down the hills, runs roaring past with a deafening noise". The old Hindusthan-Tibet route (now a national highway) runs by the swift-flowing Sutlej, the largest of the five rivers from which the Punjab derives its name.