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Wagon Bridge over the Klaas Smits River
Komani (Queenstown) district, Eastern Cape
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Contact Artefacts | MenuHomeUpfront Now Up Books Towns Structures People Firms Lexicon | Wagon Bridge over the Klaas Smits River | | ||||||
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Click to view map Coordinates: | A fine example of a lattice girder wagon bridge on the old wagon road between Komani (Queenstown) and Whittlesea exists directly adjacent to the modern R67 road and concrete road bridge over the Klaas Smits River. The Klaas Smits River is part of the Great Kei River. It originates south of Molteno and flows through Sterkstroom before joining up with the Black Kei River. The basin of the Klaas Smits River saw much commando activity during the Second Boer War. The steel lattice girder wagon bridge was completed a few years after the Second Boer War - in 1906 - and fortunately still survives largely intact as a layer of the history of this part of the Eastern Cape. The bridge comprises three individual bridge spans, each approximately 18,75 m long (and about 5,5 m wide) with a total span of about 56,25 m. The lattice girders are fabricated of rivetted hot rolled steel sections. The bridge spans are supported at each end on hammer dressed stone abutments and on two free-standing hammer-dressed stone columns in the river bed. The construction of the bridge was undertaken by the Public Works Department of the Cape Colony. The manufacturer's plaque records the following: P.W.D - 1906 The bridge was manufactured by ALEXANDER FINDLAY & Co Ltd of Motherwell, Scotland as recorded on the rectangular cast iron manufacturer's plaque rivetted onto the inside top face of the top rail of the east girder of the southern bridge span. The individual bridge components would have been transported to the site by rail and ox-wagon. William Martinson, February 2022 |