Victoria Falls Bridge over the Zambezi River from Zambia into Zimbabwe. designed by G. S. Hobson, and completed in 1905. It has a road, rail and a footpath, and has border posts between both countries at either end.
The bridge was built over the Second Gorge, and there was considerable opposition to its location, spoiling the natural beauty of the location. However, Cecil Rhodes, its instigator, is reputed to have said “build the Bridge across the Zambezi where the trains, as they pass, will catch the spray of the Falls”. The bridge was originally built to link the coalfields of Hwange with the copper deposits of Zambia as part of Rhodes’s vision of a system of railways stretching from the Cape to Cairo.
Originally referred to as the Zambezi Bridge, the parabolic arch design of the Victoria Falls Bridge is credited to George Hobson. It was constructed in England by the Cleveland Bridge and Engineering Company, and shipped to the Mozambique port of Beira, and then railed up to Victoria Falls. In a feat of Victorian engineering, the Bridge took just 14 months to build. It was opened by Charles Darwin’s son, Professor George Darwin, President of the British Association (now the Royal Society) on 12 September 1905. The American Society of Civil Engineers lists the Victoria Falls Bridge as an Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.
Zambia Tourism
Lots of interesting details of the history of the bridge can be found at Siyobona Africa.
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