Victoria Falls Bridge
| Victoria Falls Bridge | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Coordinates | 17°55′42.07″S 25°51′25.68″E / 17.9283528°S 25.8571333°ECoordinates: 17°55′42.07″S 25°51′25.68″E / 17.9283528°S 25.8571333°E |
| Carries | road, rail, foot traffic |
| Crosses | Zambezi River |
| Locale | Second Gorge of Victoria Falls, crossing the Zimbabwe-Zambia border |
| Maintained by | National railways of Zimbabwe and Zambia |
| Characteristics | |
| Design | Parabolic arch |
| Material | Steel |
| Total length | 198 metres (650 ft) |
| Height | 128 metres (420 ft) |
| Longest span | 156.5 metres (513 ft) |
| No. of spans | 1 |
| Piers in water | 0 |
| History | |
| Designer | G. A. Hobson |
| Constructed by | Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company |
| Construction begin | 1904 |
| Construction end | 1905 |
The Victoria Falls Bridge crosses the Zambezi River just below the Victoria Falls and is built over the Second Gorge of the falls. As the river is the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia, the bridge links the two countries and has border posts on the approaches to both ends, at the towns of Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe and Livingstone, Zambia.
The bridge was the brainchild of Cecil Rhodes, part of his grand and unfulfilled Cape to Cairo railway scheme, even though he never visited the falls and died before construction of the bridge began. Rhodes is recorded as instructing the engineers to "build the bridge across the Zambezi where the trains, as they pass, will catch the spray of the Falls". It was designed by George Andrew Hobson of consultants Sir Douglas Fox and Partners, assisted by the stress calculations of Ralph Freeman, who was later the principal designer of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The main central arch is a parabolic curve,.
The bridge was constructed in England by the Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company, before being shipped to the Mozambique port of Beira and then transported on the newly constructed railway to the Victoria Falls. It took just 14 months to construct and was completed in 1905.
The bridge was officially opened by Professor George Darwin, son of Charles Darwin and President of the British Association (now the British Science Association) on 12 September 1905. The American Society of Civil Engineers lists the bridge as a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.
...
Wikipedia