Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

THE UGANDA RAILWAY. 51 with the coast, and so permitting easy access to the inland waters. The establishment of steamboats on the lakes, supported, where necessary, by fortified posts and the erection of telegraph lines to assure communication between the inland posts and stations and the coast and other centres of administration, was also suggested. mountable by skilled engineers, and that the cost, according to Sir Frederick Lugard, then the great authority upon this portion of the African continent, would not exceed two and a quarter millions sterling. The construction of the railway, even though it ultimately cost a greater sum than was originally regarded as sufficient, was MAP OF THE COUNTRY TRAVERSED BY THE RAILWAY. Prior to the calling of this international con- ference, Great Britain had proclaimed a Pro- tectorate over Uganda and the vast territory known to-day as British East Africa, and then under the control of the Imperial British East Africa Company. Shortly after this step was taken it was decided to build a line of railway from Mombasa through the interior to the Victoria Nyanza. In the words of the late Marquis of Salisbury, this line “ would repre- sent the contribution of this country towards the execution of its obligations under the Brussels Act.” In accordance with this deter- mination, preliminary surveys were undertaken almost immediately along the proposed route of the line. It was at that time believed that the country would offer no obstacles insur- I warmly advocated by, among other public men, the late Marquis of Salisbury, Lord Rosebery, the late Lord Goschen, Mr. J. Chamberlain, Construction Lord Brassey, the present of the Line Speaker of the House of Com- mons (Mr. J. W. Lowther), and Sir Richard Temple, and was also generally supported by the commercial population of East Africa as likely to act as a great stimulus to trade. As has been the case with many other rail- ways in all parts of the world, the first esti- mate of the cost of the Uganda Railway was found to fall very much short of the mark, the ultimate expenditure being not much less than five and a quarter millions sterling. The line is owned, of course, by the Imperial DANMARKS TEKNISKE BIBLIOTEK