‘Build a bridge across the River Zambezi where the trains, as they pass, will catch the spray of the Victoria Falls,’ instructed magnate Cecil Rhodes, and the men of Darlington did, their extraordinary construction being opened by Professor George Darwin, the son of Charles, on this day.
Because of the heat of the African sun, the bridge was designed to expand and lift on giant hinged bearings bolted into the sides of the 820ft-wide gorge.
The bridge was built in sections in Darlington by Cleveland Bridge, a company formed in 1877 by Albert Hill steelworkers on the strawberry patch of Polam Hall in Smithfield Road. On 5 March 1904, they despatched the 1,868-ton segments by train to Middlesbrough from where they sailed to Africa. With the pieces went ‘20 skilled mechanics or erectors’ who, for the next year, lived in huts on the south bank of the Zambezi, according to The Northern Echo. They bolted their bits together until the two sides of the bridge met in the middle on the evening of 31 March 1905. But they were 1¾ inches out. They returned to their huts in disappointment, but during the cool night their steel contracted, and at 7 a.m. next morning, it fitted perfectly.
Local tribal chief Mukuni explained how this graceful arch could hang 420ft above the river: ‘It is held up by the finger of the white man’s god.’
(‘Memories’, The Northern Echo, 2012)