The Van Stadens River is the western boundary of the Nelson Mandela Bay metropolitan area. Crossing the gorge about 35 km west of Port Elizabeth is a magnificent arch bridge that was completed in 1971. The bridge is 125 meter high, 340 meter long and was built similtaniously from both sides. It replaced the old bridge which can only be reached by driving through the Van Stadens Pass. Driving down the Garden Route towards Cape Town from Port Elizabeth, this is the first of a serious of large arch bridges. The others are the Storms River Bridge, Bloukrans Bridge, Groot River Bridge and Bobbejaan River Bridge, all in the Tsitsikamma. The Van Stadens River was named after Marthinus van Staaden who farmed in the area in the mid 1700's.
Great Pic Firefly - Looks like van Stadens is getting quite a bit of exposure lately.
ReplyDeleteNice angle. I remember crossing several of these awesome arched bridges.
ReplyDeleteFor overseas blogger it may be interesting to know that the bridge is thought of as being 'cursed'. The engineer was not fully satisfied as a minute error made it less pefect than he intended, and he was the 1st person to commit suiside over it. Near 50 suisides have been commited since. Also, it was for many years a satanic haunt until a church erected a fluorescent cross on the ridge overlooking it some years ago.
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