Bethulie Bridge (S. Africa)
This entry relates to an iron truss girder road bridge over the Orange River, completed c.1878. At some point a railway bridge was constructed about 1 mile upstream of the road bridge.
A replacement bridge was constructed in 1967.
The bridge was described and illustrated in Engineering in 1879 [1]. An extract:-
'The contractors for the manufacture of the ironwork
of this bridge and also for the bridge at Aliwal North, a
counterpart of the Bethalie Bridge, were the Crumlin
Viaduct Works Company, Limited, who also undertook
the erection of the same; this, however, was transferred
to the Cape Public Works Department, who completed
the bridge, the engineers in charge of the erection being
Messrs. Grier and Hyslop ; the engineer for the Crown
agents in this country being Mr. George Berkley, who
superintended the manufacture.
The total length of this structure exclusive of approaches is 500 yards, and the weight of ironwork being
1000 tons. The bridge consists of twenty-two spans of
lattice pin girders, supported by twenty-one wrought-iron cylinders, 10ft. by 5 ft., of oval form, and filled with
concrete, placed 63 ft. apart centre from centre. .....
...... The whole of the ironwork and other materials had to
be carried 300 miles up country in bullock wagons, and
the structure was designed so that no part weighed more
than 1 1/2 tons, or was of greater length than 20ft., so as
to suit the buck wagons. ....'
Note: The Crumlin Viaduct Works was in liquidation by 1878.
The above text gives the number of girder spans as 22, while the woodcut 23 plus two masonry arches. Another source[2] refers to 18 spans of 63 ft and two masonry arches, with two additional spans being found necesssary (iron or masonry?). This source notes that in 1870 a proposal was presented to Parliament for the construction of two iron bridges over the Orange River at Bethulie and Aliwal North, to make provision for the busy wagon route to the rapidly developing Diamond Fields and the expanding town of Bloemfontein to the north. These were to be followed by iron bridges at Colesberg (15 girder spans, opened July 1880) and Hope Town (opened April 1882), with the order for ironwork for those being placed with Westwood, Baillie and Co. These were all toll bridges until 1889.