Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

THE CAPE TO CAIRO RAILWAY. 153 of raising the necessary capital for the con- tinuation of his line, and at last, after many anxious moments, the landowners and mining companies in Rhodesia promised to subscribe the greater portion of the money required in return for certain valuable concessions. The route originally proposed for this line north of Bulawayo ran through the Selukwe and Mafungabusi districts on account of the valuable gold deposits and Progress of considerabje coalfields which the Line. they contained. These it was desired to work at the earliest possible mo- ment. After crossing the great Zambesi River, the line was then to travel almost due north to the southern shores of Lake Tanganyika. In May 1899 construction work towards the north commenced. The first section of the line was to run from Bulawayo to the Globe and Phoenix gold mine, one of the largest and richest in Rhodesia. No sooner, how- ever, had the work been taken in hand seri- ously than the war with the Boers of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State broke out, and operations' on the line were para- lyzed owing to the difficulty of getting up plant and material from the south. The delay made for good in one direction, however. It gave the engineers in charge of the work an opportunity to examine the country to the north more carefully than had been possible previously. Reports from those engaged in the building of the trans-African * telegraph—which Mr. Rhodes always re- garded as the pioneer of his larger scheme for the railway—showed that the country through which it was proposed to carry the railway would prove a very difficult one from an engineering point of view, much bridging and viaduct building being necessary to cross the rivers, gorges, and ravines. The coal areas of the Mafungabusi district, moreover, though large in extent, were proved, after careful analysis of samples, to contain de- posits of but small commercial value. A IF M C A (SHOWING PROJECTED CAPETOWN-CAIRO ROUTE.) TABLE OF DISTANCES. Assuan W. Ha I fa.! Rail— Cairo to Assuan Boat—Assuan to Wady Haifa Rail —Wady Haifa, to Atbara River Rail — Atkara to Khartum GY PT Cam OlluJAy MAP OF THE PROJECTED CAPE SYSTEM. (Section already completed indicated by full lines.) Boat—Khartum to f'afhoda. Boat— Fashoda. to Albert Nyania. Land Journey — Albert Nyanza. to L. Tanganyika ßoat-L. Tanganyika GERMAN E. AFRICA L. Tanganyika. PORTUGUESE AFRICA & RHODESIA Ka! a mo 'Bulbooåyo GERMAN WEST A F R1CA H UAN ALÄN 0 Foshoda. CONGO STATE Mile«. i 683 200 378 180 450 750 450 'årtlybuilt Roi/jjay 860 1360 TO CAIRO RAILWAY After careful consideration, therefore, it was decided to seek an alternative route. The surveyors went out and found one. It had been arranged, when work on the main line northwards from _ Route chosen. Bulawayo was commenced, to construct a branch railway with, a 2-foot gauge from that town north-westwards to the won- derful and awe-inspiring Victoria Falls, in order to tap the immense areas of high-grade coal located in the Wankie district some 50 miles on the Bulawayo side of the Falls. This route, it was now decided, should form the main line, and have the usual South African gauge of 3 feet 6 inches. To carry the rails over the Zambesi promised to be a knotty