Mount road

 "Mount Road, now called Anna Salai, is an ancient, roughly 400-year-old thoroughfare in Chennai, originally a dusty path linking the British East India Company's Fort St. George to St. Thomas Mount."

 

The road's current structure and layout were significantly developed during the governorship of Charles Macartney, who played a key role in shaping it into the artery it is today. 

 Following the defeat of Tipu Sultan in 1799, British officials began building garden bungalows along the road, marking its emergence as a developed area. 

In the 1700s, the road was lined with garden houses and large colonial mansions with balconies and verandas set amidst lush gardens.[6] By the 1800s, Mount Road has become the traders' area of the city of Madras while First Line Beach in Georgetown remained the seat of processing, shipping and manufacturing businesses. However, the business activities of Mount Road was responsible for the city's economic growth. Several giant firms had beginnings on Mount Road, from the Amalgamations group to the TVS group. The road's proximity to the Government House, the home of the Governor, and the palaces of the Nawabs of Arcot resulted in several firms selling cars and other luxury goods setting up shops on the road. Simpson & Co, which moved to its current location opposite Government Estate after 1875, began building carriages and coaches and then cars. In the early 1900s, the road became the entertainment hub for the British.[6] In 1903, the first steam-driven car was taken for its debut drive on Mount Road.

The eponymous Mount Road was originally born out of necessity as a simple cart track connecting Fort St. George to St. Thomas Mount, for the Company officials to reach the military garrison and pilgrims journeying to the chapel. The track was primarily used for troop movements, supply transport, and communication between the fort and the cantonment. As British influence in Madras grew, the track evolved into a well-trodden route for merchants, officials, and travellers, initially functioning as a military and trade artery, with bullock carts and horse-drawn vehicles carrying goods such as textiles, grains, and military provisions. Over time, the road saw increasing civilian use, with European settlers and Indian traders setting up shops and businesses along its length, leading to its transformation into a bustling commercial hub.

An important factor that fuelled the transformation of this dirt road into a motorway was the construction of a bridge over the Adyar River near Saidapet, mitigating the challenges that came with crossing it during floods. In 1726, Armenian merchant Coja Petrus Uscan commissioned the Marmalong Bridge at a personal cost of 30,000 pagodas, making it the first ever bridge to be constructed across the Adyar. Named after the nearby village of Mambalam, the bridge not only facilitated easier access for those travelling to St. Thomas Mount, but also became a crucial infrastructure element, improving connectivity between Fort St. George and the southern regions, thereby contributing to the expansion of Mount Road and the city’s growth southward. Although the original structure was replaced in 1966 by the Maraimalai Adigal Bridge,