The following article on the history of the Victoria Bridge near Fort Beaufort appeared in the 1985 edition of Restorica, the old journal of the Simon van der Stel Foundation (today the Heritage Association of South Africa). Thank you to the University of Pretoria (copyright holders) for giving us permission to publish. Although the bridge is still in existence, local activists are concerned that it may not survive for long as it is being used by very heavy trucks and stress cracks have started to appear.
Spanning the Kat River on the margin of the built-up area of the town of Fort Beaufort in the Eastern Province, the Victoria Bridge is one of the very few early engineering structures of its kind still serving the purpose for which it was built.
This multiple span arch bridge was the first of three major bridges authorised by the Cape Colonial Government to improve lines of communications along the Eastern Frontier. These three bridges formed a vital link in the military road from Grahamstown to Fort Beaufort and onwards to Post Retief in the Winterberg, a distance of some 110km. Named the Queen's Road by a military order issued by the Governor of the Cape, Major-General Sir George Napier, its construction was undertaken by the Royal Engineers in the years 1837 to 1842. The road carried all traffic between the two towns until 1962 when it was superseded by the present truck road.
Credit for the design of the Victoria Bridge goes to Major C J...
