Travellers like Al Baruni and Hieun Tsang came this way, long before the fabled Jhelum Valley Road from Rawalpindi to Srinagar was formally opened by the Maharaja of Kashmir in 1890.
Colonel Nesbitt, British Resident in 1888, found a road did exist between Kohala, last boundary post of the princely state of Kashmir and Domel (in Pakistan controlled Kashmir) where the Jhelum meets the crystal clear waters of the Kishanganga (called Neelum in Pakistan).
But with the British keen to check Russia, Nesbitt wanted to extend the link to the Northern Areas, and from Baramulla to Srinagar.
The road cost the maharaja Rs2,178,870 (Dh182,796) to build. It included eight wooden bridges, three arches and 11 steel girders between Uri and Domel.
The all weather road saw a boom in the valley, with nearly all of Kashmir's fresh produce apples, pears and walnuts finding a market in Rawalpindi.
But that flowering was not to last more than 57 years when the horrors of partition visited the main link between the two sides of Kashmir. Uri was recaptured by the Indian army on November 14, 1948.
The key bridge that linked it to the rest of India, named for Nand Singh who defended it, continues to be a strategic point. The gravestones of the men who died in that battle lie at the bend in the Jhelum.
British built
The bridge on which the Indian and Pakistani Kashmiris crossed the Khalias-de-Khan canal on the Line of Control on April 7 is British built.
Pakistan's Zomurruda Begum became the first civilian to cross over to Kaman post on the renamed Aman Setu or Peace Bridge since the two governments officially closed it in 1956.
The Line of Control, known to many here as khoon-ki-lakeer or the line of blood, was born after the
14-month war that ended with UN intervention on January 1, 1949. By November 1, the Ceasefire Line was official.
In the 1965 war, forward positions occupied by either side were given up after the Tashkent Agreement on January 10, 1966. To Uri's shock, Haji Pir which connects it to Poonch reverted to Pakistan.
After the 14-day 1971 war and subsequent Simla Agreement of July 1972, the CFL became known as the Line of Control and Uri, a border town on the final frontier.
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