Frere Bridge (South Africa)
Conflicting information will follow, as there are old photographs showing bridges identified as Frere Bridge or Aliwal North Bridge, which have varying numbers of spans.
One of the bridges crossed the Orange River at Aliwal North, and this was built for the Natal Government Railways.
One 'Frere Bridge' was also referred to as Aliwal North Bridge.
Named for Sir Bartle Frere, then Governor of the Cape. One source states that the bridge comprised thirteen 18.8 m (62 ft) spans of wrought iron truss girders, constructed by the Crumlin Viaduct Works who had also contracted to manufacture, transport, erect and commission the completed works. The spans were intended to be supported on iron piers. After disputes over payment, the Crumlin Company's contract was terminated. The ironwork had lain in East London harbour from 1877, and in 1878 the company went into liquidation. The Dept of Public Works of the Cape Colony undertook to complete the works. The piers, now to be of stone, were erected within timber lined coffer dams pumped free of water. This information is condensed from here [1]
A scholarly account states that The Orange River Wagon Bridge at Aliwal North, was named the Frere Bridge, after the Governor of the Cape Colony, Sir Bartle Frere. It was opened to traffic on 21 July 1880. It had thirteen 63 ft Warren truss girder spans supported on twelve wrought iron piers 70 ft high.[2]
This 1896 View of the Frere Bridge, labelled 'Aliwal North, 1896. Frere railway bridge over Orange River' shows 12 of the 13 spans crossing the wide river bed.
This undated photo, labelled 'Aliwal North. Bridge over Orange River' shows a bridge with more than 16 girder spans. Could this be Bethulie road bridge, which had 22 girder spans?!
1900 An article in Engineering, 26 January[3] headed 'The Frere and Tugela Bridges' featured bridges which had been destroyed in the Boer War. The contract for the new bridges to replace the wrecked structures at Frere and Colenso was entrusted to the Patent Shaft and Axletree Company, Limited of the Old Park Works, Wednesbury. The article refers to the Frere bridge having two spans, and a photo showing a temporary bridge alongside the wrecked bridge. The river bed is relatively narrow.
The replacement girders for the Frere and Colenso bridges were also covered by The Engineer in 1900 [4]. The bridges had two and five spans respectively.
This 1909 photo is labelled 'Frere bridge on the NGR main line', and it shows only a short bridge with two spans.
c.1916 A new rail bridge was built at Aliwal North, shown in this 1916 photograph. The old multi-span bridge can be seen in the background.
This bridge was replaced by the General Hertzog Bridge in 1935.
See [4] for a view of the 1938 General Hertzog road bridge.
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ [1] Artefacts.co.za: Frere Bridge - Orange River
- ↑ WAGON BRIDGES OF THE EASTERN CAPE, c.1840 – 1900 - THE CONTRIBUTION OF ENGINEERING TO INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT. A PhD thesis submitted by DENNIS E. WALTERS, Rhodes University, January 2018, p.204
- ↑ [2] Engineering 26 Jan 1900, pp.121, 122, 124
- ↑ [3] The Engineer, 19 Jan 1900