For
rapidity of building railways the palm has heretofore been claimed by
America, but the best American records have been challenged repeatedly
in the advance of the African Transcontinental Railway, and it is now
claimed that the world's record for rapid construction and bridge
building has been captured by The Patent Shaft and Axletree Company, of
Wednesbury, England. The Boers had effected the isolation of General
White and his men in Ladysmith by blowing up the two railway bridges on
the Tugela River at Colenso and Frere, and, promptly on learning of the
destruction of these bridges, the Natal Government took steps for
their rebuilding. The crossing over the Tugela at Colenso was designed
in five spans of 105 feet each, and the crossing at Frere of two spans
of the same length. The call for the utmost haste in construction was
imperative, and tenders were invited, both in England and America. The
contract was awarded to The Patent Shaft and Axletree Company upon its
undertaking to deliver the first span in six weeks from the day of the
contract. The order was given on the 21st of December, 1899, and the
first span was finished on the 13th of January, 1900, or in nineteen
working days. When the order was received, nothing was in stock at the
company's works from which the structural steel was rolled, yet at five
o'clock on the afternoon of the day of the order 100 tons had been
rolled at the company's works, and tested and approved by the engineer
of the Natal Government. Each of the spans weighs 105 tons, or a ton to
the lineal foot of the bridge. There was about 7500 feet of planing
work, and 69,000 rivet holes were drilled in each span; yet on January
19, two of the spans had been built
