Navigability of the Hooghly and Farracca Barrage

Between the years 1686 and 1690, when the British traders were harried at the factory at Hooghly by the Foujdar there, Job Charnock first set his foot at "Calcutta" (in the village named Sutanuti). When the Moghul Governor of Dacca, Ibrahim Khan, assured the British peace and protection, then, that is, from 24th August 1690, Job Charnock began to build the English Factory at Calcutta, on the east bank of the river Bhagirathi which the foreign traders Christened as the "Hooghly river" evidently to distinguish it from the other branch the Saraswati, which bifurcated at Tribeni. Through this latter Saraswati European traders had come to Saptagram at the beginning of the 17th century to trade in Bengal.