Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

THE UGANDA RAILWAY. 59 CARRIERS ON ROPE INCLINE. Victoria Nyanza, to the north-west of Port Florence. However, the country between the Mau summit and Port Victoria, though not so abrupt in its descent as the route fin- ally selected, was so extremely unfavourable for engineering work of any description, that after a detailed survey had been carried out it was definitely abandoned, and Port Flor- ence was selected as the inland terminus of the railway. During the building of the line from Nairobi to the interior, the great amount of bridging necessary was so con- siderable, and so irri- tating were the delays of the manufacturers, British and American, in the delivery of the necessary material, that whenever possible the construction par- ties pushed on along alternative routes in order that the work of conveying the rails and other necessary equipment for the line might proceed as quickly as possible. So often was this ex- pedient resorted to that the German engineers who subsequently traversed the line declared that the British Government had made not one railway from Construction the coast to the Victoria Ny- Delziys. anza, but two. Along these diversions tem- porary wooden bridges and viaducts had often to be built, some of them of a very substantial nature. In fact, it is probable that, had the line been built in the United States or Canada, the bridges would have been allowed to remain as part of the permanent track. The British Government, however, determined that steel bridges only should be utilized throughout the length of the railway. A severe impediment to the construction of the line were the marauding habits of the natives in certain districts through which the railway passed. Tools and equipment of every description Marauding had an especial attraction for them, and though they had not the slightest idea of the manner in which, to utilize the things they appropriated, they would carry them off under the very eyes of the construction staff, vanishing swiftly into the jungle and the for- ests, where pursuit was almost impossible. Nor LANDING MATERIAL AT MOMBASA.