Bain's Passes

Victoria Bridge (Fort Beaufort)

AndrewAttributedBridge

Designed by Major C J Selwyn of the Royal Engineers. The Heritage Portal concludes Andrew Bain was almost certainly entrusted with supervising its construction.

This is a bridge, not a pass. Bain's role is an inference by the Heritage Portal article rather than a documented fact, so this entry is Attributed. SAHRIS records the bridge as a Grade II national monument on Bridge Street, Fort Beaufort.
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Before you go

Road conditions change with weather, floods, fires and roadworks. Check the latest conditions with the road authority or local tourism office before you leave, and carry offline maps.

About this bridge

The Victoria Bridge over the Kat River was the first of three major bridges on the Queen's Road. Lady Napier laid its foundation stone in November 1840, and it took about three years to build. The Heritage Portal finds little doubt that Andrew Bain supervised the work, and notes that the road works gave him his formal training as a road engineer.

A multi-span arch bridge of dressed local sandstone and Roman cement mortar: a central elliptical arch of 20.7 m flanked by two smaller circular arches, with the roadway over 10 m above the riverbed. Lady Napier laid the foundation stone on 25 November 1840 with the words "I name this bridge the VICTORIA BRIDGE"; the stone has since disappeared, probably buried in mud. The Queen's Road it served ran about 110 km from Grahamstown to Fort Beaufort and on to Post Retief, and carried all traffic between the towns until 1962. Construction is given as 1837 to 1842. A flood on 6 December 1874 damaged the masonry above the arches; the flanking spans were widened to 13.7 m and 12.2 m and finished in October 1876 at a recorded cost of R9 800. The central arch and piers are original. The Heritage Portal calls it the oldest river bridge in southern Africa, and says local activists fear for it because heavy trucks cross it and stress cracks have appeared. Ross's chronology: designed by Major Charles Selwyn and built by the Royal Engineers; foundation stone laid by Lady Napier on 25 November 1840, completed in 1843 or 1844 after three years of construction and "numerous damning reports" of overexpenditure. Roadway 4.9 m wide. The parapet walls were destroyed in a flood in 1848; the 6 December 1874 flood took the spandrel walls to just above the central arch. The repair to Joseph Newey's design (1875–76) used contractor Charles Pope and Resident Engineer Robert Heenan, who made the two side spans larger (13.7 and 12.2 m). Huisman called it "the first bridge of a permanent nature that has ever been thrown across any river of importance on our frontier possessions".

History

Built by
Designed by Major C J Selwyn of the Royal Engineers. The Heritage Portal concludes Andrew Bain was almost certainly entrusted with supervising its construction.
Built
Foundation stone laid 25 November 1840; completed towards the end of 1843 or early in 1844 (SAHRIS, Heritage Portal).
Location
Over the Kat River on Bridge Street, Fort Beaufort, Eastern Cape
Later work
Rebuilt.A flood on 6 December 1874 damaged the masonry. The flanking spans were widened and rebuilt, finished in October 1876. The central arch and piers are original.
Notes
The article calls it one of the oldest bridges in Southern Africa and the first of three major bridges on the Queen's Road. The opening date is unrecorded; the Heritage Portal concludes late 1843 or 1844, and the 1837–42 construction span and 1843/44 completion differ slightly. Bond (1956) says Bain built it, while Ross's sources (Huisman 1975, Walters) credit Selwyn's design and Royal Engineers construction; the Heritage Portal says Bain "probably" supervised it.

Find it

Pin
-32.78330, 26.62380
Position from the SAHRIS heritage record for the bridge on Bridge Street, Fort Beaufort.
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Sources

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