A 1938 Surviving Bridge!
This is historic wine and apple country in South Africa and I am proud to share this wonderful part of the country with all of you today.
Now before we go to the bridge I want to show you in the next 2 pictures about some of our beauties here.
The picture above is one of the old wine farms backed by the "Jonkershoek" mountains near the town of Stellenbosch that was founded in 1679!
Join me in this travel story!
Here we have a typical African dream as seen on one of the sculpture farms in the area.
Now we move to another town and we have a picture of the bridge built in 1938 that I mentioned in the post title!
I had to source another photo of the bridge to show you that this is a verifiable post!
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerset_West
I am one of those investigative souls and climbed down the other side of the bridge to have a look at the river!
The commissioning of this double wagon bridge, meaning that two wagons could pass in opposite directions, was done by a guy that was at the battle of Waterloo!
Ah! Look What I have found here under the bridge?
A blue Darter Dropwing Dragonfly.
Oops! I stumbled upon their bedroom!
But they seemed happy to pose for me!
The male at the front holds the female's head with his tail, while she reaches underneath the males torso to access his sperm sac.
Pity the spider was out shopping, but this web made a nice picture!
Here is the blue guy just to show you how beautiful he is!
The one at the top is a blue Damsel Fly and at the bottom is an empty shell of a dragonfly nymph. One of the dragonflies here was in that shape before they emerged in their full beauty.
I just loved to hear the water's whispering burbles over the stones.
An Acraea Papillon also came to say hello!
So, the next time you end up under a bridge, have a look at the local residents Lol.
The sunset softly coloring the Hottentots mountains behind our place.
Finally, this carved stone initials "W.S.C." captured my imagination and I decided to do a bit of research.
This is what I found;
"Old Lourens River Bridge in Kalamunda, Somerset West, Western Cape
Second oldest surviving bridge in South Africa
Due to the “appalling condition of the roads in the colony” a Central Road Board was formulated in 1843".
"The Colonial Secretary, the Hon. John Montagu, who had fought as a subaltern at the battle of Waterloo, was the force behind this body. One of the Central Road Board’s first tasks was the construction of a hard road across the Cape Downs and the Lourens River was bridged in 1845".
"National Monument"
"The work was undertaken by Lt Col Charles Mitchell, Surveyor-General and Civil Engineer of the Cape Colony, who had built Sir Lowry’s Pass in 1830. In 1938, the same year in which the new bridge had just been completed, the double-span Lourens River bridge was proclaimed a national monument".
"There is a plaque on a rock from the Lourens River, engraved with a short memorial to those connected with the building of this distinctive historical bridge, that is hidden, almost unnoticeable in the garden of the Old Bridge Pub Beer Garden".
The historical plaque reads:
"The Lourens River is named after Corporal Lourens Visser who arrived from Holland at the Cape in 1666.Colonial Secretary Sir John Montagu started the road building programme in the Cape and was responsible for the construction of the road from Cape Town over the Hottentots-Holland Kloof".
"The bridge over the Lourens River was completed in 1845 under the supervision of Architect WS Chauncey. Making it the second oldest surviving bridge in the country".
Imagine that, visiting a National Monument!
"In 1952 an old-fashioned post cart drawn by six horses was driven across a strip of wet concrete on its way to the tercentenary celebration at Cape Town. Imprints of the Horses hooves and carriage wheels in the concrete remain as a record".
"Horse hoof and wagon tracks can still be seen embedded in the uppermost layer of the Old Bridge".
Source:
https://pathfinda.com/en/somerset-west/kalamunda/attractions/old-lourens-river-bridge
NOTE: Only the 3rd picture and the sections quotated ("") are not my own and are duly source cited!
All other photos and words are my own
We hope that you have enjoyed this blog and thank you for visiting a post by @papilloncharity
Hello!
This post has been manually curated, resteemed
and gifted with some virtually delicious cake
from the @helpiecake curation team!
Much love to you from all of us at @helpie!
Keep up the great work!
Manually curated by @georgeboya.
@helpie is a Community Witness.
Thank you kindly!
Blessings!
All wonderful shots but tat bridge has such style and character the shots of it are y favorites :)
An amazing find JJ and the fact that it is so in the open make most people think that it is just an ordinary bridge.
There is a great old tavern next to it and that will be my next target.
Blessings!
cool I look forward to seeing the tavern :)
I will do it soon JJ, as soon as this rainy weather goes away.
Blessings!
Understandable :)
This post was shared in the Curation Collective Discord community for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.
@c-squared runs a community witness. Please consider using one of your witness votes on us here
A great thank you for the kind support.
Blessings!
Simply amazing photography! What a beautiful day, sunshine, mating bugs and an old bridge.
Great news!
Your post has been curated by the bitcoin myk project. Tokens are available for this account you can trade for steem at: https://steem-engine.com/ Join the curation priority list to earn more tokens by registering at:
http://www.bitcoinmyk.com/register/
You have been curated 310 BTCMYK in your Steem Engine Account. Enjoy!
Wow! This sounds good and I will certainly have a look my friend.
Thank you for the kind comment and support.
Blessings!
Hi @papilloncharity, your post has been upvoted by @bdcommunity courtesy of @priyanarc!
Support us by setting us as your witness proxy or delegating STEEM POWER.
JOIN US ON
Thank you kindly!
Blessings!
I like bridges and tunnels.
There are a lot of them under Seoul, especially along the river to divert flooding.
I've explored a few of them some go on for kilometers. They've made horror movies down there.
To contrast, this bridge you've found looks lovely and peaceful. The old stone bridges are often magnificent.
Thank you and surely built to last my friend.
I like to look back in history and to see how great the work of the stone masons were. This old bridge looks none the worst for wear and I am sure that it will continue to last for many years into the future.
Blessings!
Oh the beauty of nature
Thank you my friend and certainly a great beauty.
Blessings!
Hello papilloncharity!
Congratulations! This post has been randomly Resteemed! For a chance to get more of your content resteemed join the Steem Engine Team
Thank you for the kind support.
Blessings!
That place looks incredible! And I love the views with the peaks!
Thank you and glad that you appreciated the post my friend.
Blessings!
Thank you and glad that
You appreciated the
Post my friend. Blessings!
- papilloncharity
I'm a bot. I detect haiku.
wow beautiful post with full of nature beauty like farms, mountains, Bridge and beautiful dragonfly. Awesome photographs sir.
Thanks for share with us.
Glad that you liked the post my friend.
Blessings!
What an amazing find. I love finding old bridges that have history behind them. Your dragonfly images are outstanding as usual. Scott is a bit jealous; he never seems to get any nice ones of dragonflies.
Ren
Hahaha, poor Scott and you must send him over here.
The dragonflies are now coming into season and we will soon have all the colors of the rainbow about.
We share the love for old bridges my friend.
Blessings to you guys and thank you!
That bridge was beautiful!
Thank you and so glad that you liked it.
Blessings!
You have been curated by @freedomtowrite on behalf of Inner Blocks: a community encouraging first hand content, with each individual living their best life, and being responsible for their own well being. #innerblocks Check it out at @innerblocks for the latest information and community updates, or to show your support via delegation.
Thank you kindly!
Blessings!
Congratulations @papilloncharity! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOP
To support your work, I also upvoted your post!
Do not miss the last post from @steemitboard:
Thank you kindly.
Hopefully one of these days my vote value will increase so that I can support you guys.
Blessings to your efforts!
Lovely history and bridge, old stone bridges always capture the imagination and are romantic in some odd way.
Dragonflies are celebrating new season, not shy at all Stephen, as always brilliant photography!
Thank you Lady Joan, our country have a veritable league of nations that built historic bridges here and I simply love the history.
I am glad that the drag season is finally going again, as they are fabulous little creatures. Haven't seen the dwarf chameleons for a while now, but we have had many weather changes and I think that's keeping them away.
Blessings!
We have some amazing history, sadly too much is being destroyed or forgotten.
Chameleons have grown up and out doing their own thing, becoming teenagers and like, always busy but never too far.
Well, the order is out to change our history and the things that we know will disappear in few generations Lady Joan.
Once the weather stabilizes I am sure that the dwarfs will reappear, as they like that bush.
Blessings!
Thanks for the post! As always, very cool!
My pleasure to share and thank you for the kind comment my friend.
Blessings!
What a wonderful find, that bridge looks amazing, it sure has stood the test of time not so! Beautiful part if SA where you live @papilloncharity! We're planning a trip to Swellendam & Struisbaai in March, I can't wait, last visited the Cape in 2011!
Posted using Partiko Android
Thank you Lady Lizelle.
The old expert craftsmen certainly built things to last.
I love that old white church building that dominates the Swellendam town.
Some good friends have recently moved to Struisbaai and we visited them there. A fabulous place and you are certainly going to enjoy your planned trip.
Blessings!
A combination of two of my loves - bridges and history!
It looks like a very sturdy and well built bridge - no wonder it is the second oldest surviving bridge!
It seems like it is in a lovely setting too with all that life under the bridge! Great spot to visit and it is a National Monument too - awesome!
Thanks for sharing.
Glad that you liked the post my friend.
There are many historical places around here and the travel period before the bridge was built makes for some interesting reading.
People taking ox wagons apart to haul them over mountains and such like.
Glad that you also like bridges and history.
Blessings!
Howdy sir papilloncharity! how interesting, all those great photos and breathtaking scenery. Just magnificent!
Thank you Sir @janton, greetings to you and I love to explore.
This is indeed a beautiful and historic haven.
Blessings!
That old bridge was exceptionally well built, it looks like it hasn't deteriorated at all! The whole country has a colorful history doesn't it?
A solidly built bridge by master stone masons my friend.
History is being re written by the new government and most of the old notes will gradually disappear!
Well that doesn't sound healthy but they are doing that here too. Very alarming.
That bridge was done properly to still be in such good shape!
Thank you and a pity that they don't build like this anymore my friend.
That bridge has seen many storms and floods and it will stand for another 100 years!
Blessings!