Highest Bridge in the World

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIV, Issue 2, 11 January 1906, Page 29

Highest Bridge in the World

The bridge over the' Zambesi river, Victoria Falls, East Africa, was formally opened recently in the presence of the visiting members of the British Association. Professor Darwin made the opening speech. He commented on the remarkable achievement which per- * mitted a party travelling in electric-lighted saloon, cars to vfisit* a place which heroic explorers had spent months of fruitless endeavors to reach. The bridge over the Zambesi river, the highest in %he world, was (finished on April 1, 1905, thus completing another link in the Cape-to-Ctairo railway. The bridge, which is of the cantilever style, 'is 420 feet above the river at low; water and crosses over the gorge at Victoria Falls. The bridge was built by an English company on the girder pattern. It is constructed in three spans and has a wtidth of thirty feet. The work was commenced simultaneously from both banks of the river, an electric motor cable with a span of 900 feet, the largest thing of its kind yet attempted, carrying the material from one side to the other. The bridge has ten bays in all, and at the rate of construction was estimated at aboui) two bays a month.