Victoria Falls Bridge, Victoria Falls

In the U.S. it may be all about the Golden Gate and in Australia you’d be hard pushed to beat Sydney’s Harbour, but when it comes to Africa, it’s in Victoria Falls that you’ll find the bridge of all bridges.

Taking a whopping 14 months to build and grandly opened in 1905 by Charles Darwin’s son, the Victoria Falls Bridge was an incredible design and engineering feat of its time. And, with the almighty thunder of the Victoria Falls forming the bridge’s backdrop, even now you’d struggle to find something comparable. 

It was the brainchild of Cecil Rhodes. A man who, when dreaming of establishing his Cape to Cairo railway scheme, famously spoke of wanting to “build the Bridge across the Zambezi where the trains, as they pass, will catch the spray of the Falls” – a desire that was quite fantastically realised. But as he never actually made it to the falls and died before construction of the bridge began, it was London based George Andrew Hobson who brought the idea to life in his place. 

Over a century old now, the bridges wrinkles are starting to show and although some plastic surgery in the way of reinforcement has been done to ensure that the bridge will last another century, the frequency and speed in which it can be crossed has been restricted of recent years. Regular rail passenger services may not cross the bridge anymore, but steam trains are still a thing here, offering up a slice of genuine history.

Providing the only rail link between Zambia and Zimbabwe and astounding views of the falls, this bridge really is an example of some enchanting engineering.