It’s not the punched tyres, mangled bumpers and a row of State-owned lorries waiting for maintenance that draw one’s attention at the spacious State Highways workshop in Saidapet. But, a small concrete pillar in front of the office.
Under the shade of a mango tree stands a four-feet-tall pillar, with steel fencing. The memorial, built in 1786 A. D., to honour then Chief (Government) Engineer of Madras, Lt. Col. Patrik Ross, for building a bridge in Saidapet across the water channel (which has now disappeared) that carried surplus water from a large tank to the Bay of Bengal. More importantly, the small bridge helped prevent inundation of the areas around it.
“No other place is safer than a government space, and that’s why the memorial is kept here. We trim the branches of the tree regularly to prevent it from covering the monument,” said a State Highways official that visitors, adding that heritage enthusiasts were welcome to see the memorial.
As per historical records, three years after the death of the merchant Adrin Four Beck, in 1783 A.D, his three secretaries — Thomas Pelling, John De Fries and Peter Bodin — decided to fulfil their master’s last wish specified in his will.
Beck wanted a memorial built in recognition of the efforts taken to build the bridge across the water channel. As Beck died before the memorial came up, he left instructions in his will on how the memorial should be built. Accordingly, his three British deputies decided to build the pillar as per the instructions in the will.
With an obelisk on top of it, the four-sided pedestal memorial has panels on all its sides having the same message in four languages that were spoken at that time. So, there is English, Latin, Persian and Tamil with each language occupying a face of the monument. The message in the pillar reads: “This bridge, erected as a public benefit from a legacy bestowed by Adrian Four Beck, a merchant of Madras, is a monument… (to) the good citizen’s munificent liberality,”.
At present, the bridge is one of the 88 protected monuments maintained by the Tamil Nadu State Archaeology Department in the state. In Chennai, this is the only monument that being maintained by the State Archaeology Department.
