The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c15.54

v1.c15.54

Calcutta has grown round Fort William as a nucleus. The present Fort, with its outworks, occupies a space of nearly a thousand acres on the east bank of the Hooghly below the Howrah bridge. To the north, east, and south, forming a glacis for the fort, is a wide green plain, the Maidān, and beyond this is the city. The European quarter lies to the east of the Maidān. The government offices, and beyond them the great native city, lie to the north. Calcutta with more than a million inhabitants exceeds Glasgow in size, and is the second city of the British Empire.