In 1893 and in 1894, the construction of the railways to Haputale and Bandarawela came to a point where it was necessary to build a bridge with a bend. It is the location of the 100 feet high and 400 feet long Gotuvala Nine Arches Viaduct which was built in 1919. This is quite famous among Sri Lankans as it is a creation of a bass known as 'Appuhami' who lived in Demodara area.
The work on the railway from Bandarawela to Badulla started long after the initial construction of the Colombo-Badulla railway line, i.e. the departmental level construction work started in 1913. Accordingly, five years later, on the first day of July 1918, the road was opened for traffic up to Ella. The 39th basement of this railway, which was built through a very famous and suitable environment for vegetable cultivation, was excavated at the 161st mile. The distance of this plot is 660 feet. Similarly, on March 21, 1921, the road from Ella to Demodara was also opened for traffic. One important place mentioned in this special note that we are placing is also located in this section. That is, there is the "Arukku Navaye" or "Aas Navaye" bridge, which is called Demodara Bridge. By this time, due to the First World War, importing iron from England to Sri Lanka had become an extremely difficult task. Due to this, the construction of bridges was a very problematic task in the construction of roads in this country and other alternative methods had to be found for it. During this period, it was problematic for the whites to build railway bridges without iron, but it was not a big problem for some of our Sinhalese artisans. It is not for any other reason but because our ancient Sinhalese bass known as "Galveda" has died out. When speaking like that, we hear the name of a noble person who lived in Welimada at that time. His name is P. K. Unbelievable There is also a legend that the work of this nine-arched bridge was completed by Appuhami Basunnehe. However, one hears about an extraordinary task done by Galveda Dutt Appuhami Unnehe.
In other words, the whites who removed the embankment around a mountain that looked like an embankment between the railway tracks saw a huge rock. Appuhami Bass was asked about this by the white engineers who were thinking that it would take a long time to demolish it little by little according to their technology available at that time and he was walking nearby watching the construction of the road and he said that it can be removed in a few days. Taking responsibility for it, he carefully removed the mounds of earth under the stone and dug three basements under the stone from a distance of a few meters from the stone so that they meet at one point on three sides (in the middle of the stone).
An Appuhami Bass shot string filled with gunpowder was pulled out in the middle of it, closing all the three tunnels and then setting fire to the shot string, the stone broke and the roadblock was removed. When asked by the white man what is this countermeasure, he replied that the value of Buddhism is the power of our religion. The white man, who was deceived or impressed by it, has since promised to give two salt serums to a nearby temple every week. Because of this, our Sinhalese also have the honor of constructing this wonderful bridge built in Gotuwala, a beautiful village square near Allademodara. This bridge is built with 09 arches, connecting two small hills located on both sides of the flowing river at 169 miles Damvel 40 station, without using concrete or iron rods and holding together the stones cut in a certain pattern. The height of the pillars of the bridge is 97 feet. Pillars and arches are built using blocks of black stone measuring 2 feet, 8 inches, 3 inches and 1 foot, 8 inches, 3 inches. The width of one arch is 24 feet 6 inches. This beautiful, interesting and wonderful design is even more important because of the location of the 132-yard-long basement called number 40 near the bridge. And even if this bridge was built, the white engineers were a bit afraid to run a train through it.
Because of this, our Appuhami Baz, who challenged it, said that he should drive the train without any fear and that he will sit under the bridge until the train arrives.
