Sun, Steel & Spray
A history of the Victoria Falls Bridge
The following extended feature is adapted from 'Sun, Steel & Spray - A history of the Victoria Falls Bridge', researched and written by Peter Roberts and first published in 2011 (fourth edition published October 2021).
The Bridge Builders
On 5th March 1904 Imbault, having returned to England in October to make final preparations for the work, and his chief assistant engineer, Mr A T Prince, departed Southampton on the Union Castle S.S. 'Carrisbrook Castle' for the Cape. Mr Prince later wrote an account of the construction, recording:
“We travelled from Cape Town to Bulawayo in the train de luxe, which is wonderfully comfortable and rather upsets the ideas of those who come to Africa expecting to have to rough it. There are many trains in Europe which would suffer badly in comparison.”
After the comforts of the 'Train de Luxe' the journey from Bulawayo to the Falls included travelling on construction trains to the railhead and the last 56 kilometres by Zeederberg Mail coach.
“From the rail-head, however, we had to finish our journey part of the way sitting in the trucks of a construction train and part by post cart. The post cart trip of about thirty-five miles [56 km] occupied two days instead of ten hours, as we had expected and provided for.” (Prince, 1906)
On 8th March 1904 the first group of engineers contracted by the Cleveland Bridge Company sailed on the Aberdeen Line S.S. 'Damascus' from London to the Cape. All are listed as English and unmarried, and identified as; Mr R Brooks (aged 28), C A Beech (36), T Binks (23), J R Howson (27), E French (34), H L Longbottom (25 - although he was actually 28), T Lovell (30), E C Reed (37), A Russell (29), C Rutherford (30) and P Watts (26).
A second party of seven engineers are recorded having sailed on the Aberdeen Line S.S. 'Moravian' for the Cape on 19th April 1904. The men, again all single, included four Englishmen; Mr J Anden (25), A F Davison (aged 21), A M Fleming (26) and J J Middleton (26); two Scotsmen, Mr D Chalmers (31) and A Walker (32); and a Mr W Handrup (32), identified only as a 'foreigner' on the passenger list.
In total about thirty engineers are believed to have been sent out by the Cleveland Bridge Company for the work, initially travelling as far as Bulawayo where they awaited the completion of the line to the Falls before travelling on.
The small number of engineers named in contemporary references and reports include; Mr Charles (Charlie) Albert Victor Beech, foreman for the construction; Mr Howard Schofield Longbottom, responsible for all the plant equipment used during construction (electrical, mechanical, hydraulic and pneumatic) and who also later took over as Bridge foreman; Mr Arthur Frederick Davidson, who later wrote an account of the construction, Mr D Brooks (named as 'Charlie' by Davison), and Mr D Chalmers is believed to have been the specialist operator of the electrical transporter known as the Blondin.
Three men are named in newspaper reports following a fatal accident during the construction; Mr John Burrow, described as 'foreman in charge of the ironwork on the north bank,' Mr E D Piele, operator of the construction crane involved in the accident, and Mr Charles Friel who unfortunately died as a result.
Others whose names have been recorded include Mr J A Powell, Mr Rutherford and Mr McEvoy, who were all also involved in the rebuilding of the top deck and reinforcing of the Bridge in 1929 (Powell, 1930). Mr Powell also refers to a Mr Perch, involved during the original construction of the Bridge.
Builders of the Victoria Falls Bridge
Charles Beech and Arthur Davidson were among a handful of men who remained after the completion of the Bridge to work and eventually settled in Northern Rhodesia. Davison later recalled:
“I was born in 1882 and I came out to Northern Rhodesia early in 1904 at the age of twenty-two with the Cleveland Bridge Company of Darlington Co. Durham, the firm that built the Victoria Falls Bridge. The bridge foreman at that time was Charlie Beech, a grand workman; two of his sons are now resident on the Copperbelt. The engineer was Imbault, a Frenchman, clever but not admired, and assisting him was Mr Prince, who has left his mark on Umtali, Southern Rhodesia, in the suburb Darlington...
"The story of the Falls Bridge should be written for the benefit of the thousands of visitors... Mr Prince, second engineer in charge, a fine and honest man, Charlie Beech, Charlie Brooks, Longbottom, are all names that should be preserved. If they had been in a cricket team or soccer team they would have been, but since they were only a crowd of hard-working and hard-drinking bridge builders who created a vision of Rhodes into reality and gave access to Northern Rhodesia and the Katanga, they have had no write-up." (Northern Rhodesia Journal, January 1952)
They were a rough and ready bunch and no doubt accurately described by a visiting hunter, Mr J W B White, as “the most extraordinary collection of cosmopolitan toughs I have encountered anywhere.”
Conditions for the construction workers must have been difficult, with the European men unaccustomed to the temperature and humidity. Several of the workmen had to leave on account of bad health, suffering from malaria, fever, and dysentery.
“During this work the spray was very heavy, sometimes falling all day with the force of a heavy shower. In consequence, with perhaps a little help from other causes not water, several of the workmen we brought out from England had to leave the country on account of bad health. Malaria, fever, and dysentery were the chief evils from which the men suffered.” (Prince, 1906)
Davison indicates that a number of the men went on to work in Kimberley.
"They put up with conditions that were, to say the least, very primitive, and it says wonders for all the men engaged on the construction - quite a lot of men were later engaged in Africa, mostly in Kimberley - that they remained to see the job finished.” (Northern Rhodesia Journal, January 1952)
The engineers were assisted by an estimated 400 African labourers over the period of construction, although the average number working on the Bridge was about 200. Labourers were paid from £3 to just 10 shillings a month.
Pauling’s Italian sub-contractor, Giacomo D’Alberto, was contracted by the Railway Company to excavate the Bridge foundations and also by the Bridge Company to prepare the concrete foundations of the Bridge, with workmen and labourers recruited from Bulawayo for the work.
Despite the option of basing himself on the south bank, where the Victoria Falls Hotel was soon to be opened, Imbault established his base of operations on the north bank, where the majority of the Cleveland Bridge engineers and workmen were also based. The camp was known alternatively as the Bridge Engineer’s, Imbault’s or Salmon’s Camp (Captain Ernest Harry Lindsell Salmon was the Rhodesian government transport officer and responsible for ensuring the camp was prepared to the necessary standard).
Mr Beresford-Fox was charged with the preparation of the camp for the construction engineers and labourers on the northern bank. In a letter to his father he recorded:
“I am putting up some fifteen or twenty huts for the railway company, or for the men and boys, e.g. a bedroom hut (all circular), 13 ft. or 14 ft. [3.95-4.25 m] diameter inside, about 7 ft. or 8 ft. [2.1-2.4 m] walls, and a sloping conical roof; another 12 ft. [3.65 m] high. It is made of poles cut out of the bush, and placed close together all round save for doors or windows. The roof is then thatched with good grass, and the walls and floors ‘darghad,’ i.e. plastered with clay, hiding the poles completely; and then you have a delightfully cool and waterproof dwelling. Then, again, a mess hut is 15 ft. to 18 ft. [4.6-5.5 m] diameter inside, and has a 5 ft. [1.5 m] verandah all round, with perhaps a light trellis-work balustrade. The floor inside and on the verandah is dargha; but the main walls are poles 12 in. [30.5 m] apart, and covered inside and out by long ½ in. [1.27 cm] diameter reeds, placed side by side perpendicularly, so that the air, cooled by the verandah, filters through these reed walls, and keeps the whole place delightfully fresh.” (Fox, 1904)
Accommodation was also provided for the African labourers, but before being occupied one source recorded that they “unfortunately burnt down, owing to the fusing of some electric wires, and had to be re-built... they are of a highly inflammable nature, and were burnt to the ground in a few minutes, together with all they contained” (The Engineer, April 1905).
References
Fox, Sir F. (1904) River, Road and Rail. J. Murray, London.
Northern Rhodesia Journal (January 1952) The Reminiscences of Arthur ‘Ingeinyama’ Davison. A F Davison. Vol.1 No.5, p.46-56.
Northern Rhodesia Journal (July 1953a) Early Days Around the Copperbelt. A. E. Beech. Vol.2, No.2, p.41-48.
Prince, A. T. (1906) Bridging the gorge of the Zambezi. The World’s Work, Vol.12, No.2, June 1906, p.7637-7647. Doubleday, Page & Company, New York.
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