Victoria Falls Bridge 의 Visiting Center. 리빙스턴(Livingstone)

Victoria Falls Bridge 의 Visiting Center.

리빙스턴(Livingstone). 잠비아(Zambia)

 

www.victoriafallsbridge.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cecil Rhodes 

 

The Rhodes Colossus - RHodes as satirised in Punch magazine in 1892 after announcing his plan to extend an electrical telegraph line from Cape Town to Cairo.

 

Rhodes's Cape to Cairo Vision

Cecil John Rhodes (1853-1902) was an English-born businessman, mining magnate, and politician in South Africa. An ardent believer in colonialism and imperialism. he was the founder of Rhodesia, which was named after him in 1895. At the time Rhodesia was divided by the Zambezi river into Northern and Southern Rhodesia, later renamed Zambia and Zimbabwe, respectively

 

It was Rhodes's ambition to see a "red line" across the African continent from the Cape to Cairo (on geo-political maps of the period, British dominions were always shown in red or pink) which he believed would condolidate British intrests in Africa.

 

Rhodes felt the best way for this to be achieved was through the construction of the "Cape to Cairo Railway" and Rhodes placed a great deal of emphasis on this after becoming Prime Minister of the Cape Colony in 1890 and until his death in 1902.

 

The Cape to Cairo Railway was never completed for a variety of reasons, not least of which was the death of Rhodes in 1902, and the fact that the British Government, under the leadership of Lord Salisbury, did not share Rhodes's enthusiasm for the Cape to Cairo vision

 

The railway north eventually terminated at Elisabethville (now Lubumbashi) in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo or DRC), and reached there in 1910

- 안내문에서 -

 

Railway line construction between Bulawayo and Wankie 

 

The Victoria Falls station (1906) 

 

A drawing of the Geederburg Coach station in Bulawayo (1897)

 

The Coming of the Railway

In 1896 Rhodes instructed that the railway must push north as rapidly as possilbe, and gave orders that the line must reach Bulawayo before the end of 1897. At the time the railhead was still 492 miles from Bulawayo. The contractors, Pauling and Company, enrolled large forces of locals and achieved the feat of laying 492 miles of track in 500 working days, reaching Bulawayo in October 1897, an extraordinary achievement considering the harsh conditions

 

Originally the "Cape to Cairo" route was planned to go through the capital of Southern Rhodesia, Salisbury (now Harare), and then across the Zambezi at Chirundu towards the eastern end of today's Lake Kariba. However, the discovery of rich copper deposits to the north west of Zambia, and huge coal deposits in Wankie (now Hwange), caused the axis of European development to shift. The proposed railway was realigned with the new coalfields and copper deposits, and the railway suddenly included Victoria Falls

 

The line reached Wankie in December 1903. Passengers wishing to travel on to Victoria Falls from Wankie were then transferred to a Zeederburg coach,a horse or mule drawn carriage, for the remaining 68 miles to the Falls.

 

The line from Wankie to Victoria Falls was completed in April 1904 and the Victoria Falls Railway Station was opened in mid June 1904. The stage was now set for the construction of the bridge.

 

 

Left : Mr. C. Beresford crossing ther gorge for the first time using the bosun's chair

Middle : an unknown man using the bosun's chair

Right : the Blondin cable way carrying people across the gorge. 

 

Liffing heavy railway tracks with the Blondin                     Gorge C Imbault

 

 Pre-Construction of the Bridge

Plans for a bridge crossing the Zambezi were quickly drawn up. Though he never visited the Victoria Falls, and died in 19025 before construction of the Bridge began, Rhodes was greatly influential in the positioning of the Bridge stating that "I should like to have the spray of the water <of the Victoria Falls> over the carriages".

 

The exact location of the bridge was finally chosen by Sir Charles Metcalfe, a trusted friend of Rhodes, who later became Chief Engineer of Rhodesia Railways.

 

The Victoria Falls Bridge was designed by Mr. George Hobson of Sir Douglas Fox and Rartners, not as is often stated, by Sir Ralph Freeman, who was only a junior member of the firm at that time.

 

In May 1903 Rhodesia Railways awarded the contract for the construction of the bridge to The Cleveland Bridge Company of Darlington, England, for a price of ￡72,000 pounds sterling.

 

Having won the tender, The Cleveland Bridge Company set about fabricating the bridge at their factory in Darlington, England.It was shipped to the port of Beira, Mozambique, on the SS, Cromwell, and then transported by rail to Victoria Falls via Salisbury, Bulawayo and Wankie.

 

It is one of the many outstanding achievements that the bridge, built in England, could be fitted together so perfectly more than 8,000 km away in the heart of Africa.

 

"I should like to have the spray of the water over the carriage"

Cecil Rhodes

 

Construction begins

The start of the project was significantly delayed because the south side (Zimbabwe) provided no solid foundation rock until a depth of about 15 metres was reached. A small error had been made in the surveying of the foundations and consequently the bridge had to be lowered from its intended level by 21 feet.

 

With the concrete foundations in place, the building of the main arch commenced on 21 October 1904. The end posts of the Bridge wer completed in late December 1904 and the building of the arch then progressed rapidly.

 

The arch was erected as two cantilevers, one extending our from the north bank and the other from the south, and designed to meet in the middle. Travelling along the bridge, as it extended outwards, were two ten ton electric cranes, sepcially designed by the Chief Construction Engineer, M. Georges Imbault, and which proved very successful at lifting the steel girders and lowering them into position. In all over 1,600 tons of steel wer positioned in the first twenty weeks.

 

A team of about 30 experienced contractors erected the steelwork, assisted by hundreds of local labourers, being paid from 10 shillings to ￡3 per month.

 

A steel net was suspected below the bridge to provide for the safety of the men. Fortunately it was never called into use.

 

Left : The cantilevers extending out from the northern and southern sides.

Right : The construction site on the sourthern side.

The beginning of the southern arch.

 

Completion and Opening

The main arch of the bridge was joined on 1 April 1905. The two centre girders of the arch were in place by sunset on the 31 March, four months after the end posts had been erected, but they overlapped to the extent of about 11/4 inches and could not be riveted in place, much to the disappointment of the workers.

 

When work started at sunrise next morning, it was found that the bridge had contracted in the night to the extent of exactly 11/4 inches, the two centre girders had dropped into place and fitted perfectly.

 

There is some debate about which was the first train to cross the bridge but in all probability it was a small steam engine called "Jack Tar". This little engine had initially been dismantled and transported to the northern bank via the Blondin to assist with the construction effort there. It is quite likely that it drove back and that the first train across went from north to south and not south to north. The "Jack Tar" is currently on display at the Bulawayo Railway Museum.

 

The opening ceremony for the Victoria Falls Bridge took place on 12 September, 1905. It was officially opened by Professor George Darwin, grandson of Charles Darwin and President of the British Association.

 

The arch and upper deck complete

 

The official opening 12 September 1905

 

The Jack Tar, first train across the bridge.

 

Building the Highest Bridge in the World

 

 

 

 

 

 

History - Time Line

 

 

 

 

 

The Bridge Today

More than 100 years since its cosntruction, the bridge is still an essential link for trade and commerce in southern Africa. The railway remains in constant use and the bridge continues to carry freight and material to and from the copper deposits in northern Zambia, very much as it was intended to in 1905. The bridge has also become a major tourist attraction, second only to the Falls themselves in popularity.

 

It is the location of the bridge that is so critical, the closest alternative bridge to the west is at Kathna Mulilo, 280 km upstream. To the east the nearest bridge is 360 km away at Chirundu, the original route for Rhodes's Cape to Cairo railway. As a result the Victoria Falls Bridge remains an important strategic link and is likely to do so for years to come.

 

● The Bridge carries between 120 and 180 freight trains a month

 

● There is a constant stream of haulage trucks crossing the bridge.

 

● It is estimated that 500,000 people cross the bridge annually

 

● The bridge provides an important social link for the people of the area

 

● The bridge has become a major tourist attraction and is home to Victoria Falls Bungee who

    offer one of the world's most spectacular bungee jumps as well as other adventure  

    activities.

 

the bungee station is a huge attraction for thousand of adventurous people every year

 

Goods trains and road freight trucks are making frequent use of this important link.

 

Formation of the Gorge

The geological history of Victoria Falls is revealed in the gorges that have formed below the Falls

 

The basalt plateau, over which the Upper Zambezi flows. has many large cracks filled with weaker sandstone. In the area of the current Falls, the largest cracks run roughly east to west, with smaller north-south cracks connecting them.

 

Over at least 100,000 years, the Falls have been receding upstream through the Batuka Gorge, eroding the sandstone filled cracks as the Falls slowly retreated upstream.

 

The river's course in the current vicinity of the Falls is generally north to south, so it has opened up the large east-west cracks across their full width, then it cut back through a short north-south crack, just upstream of the bridge, to the near east-west crack where we see the Falls today.

 

It is this slow but steady erosion over many thousands of years that has resulted in a series of sharply zig zagging gorges downstream from the Falls. This is quite a unique and striking geological formation.

 

The Falls have already started cutting back the nest major gorge, at Devil's Cataract (8) on the western side of the Falls. This is not actually a north-south crack, but a large east-northeast line of weakness across the river, where, most probably, the nest full width Falls will eventually form.

 

No one really knows the speed at which the Falls are retreating, but it is very slow because of the hard basalt rock, it is perhaps just a few millimeters in our lifetime.

 

Aerial photograph of the Victoria Falls and Bataku Gorge.

 

 

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