HW0002

Did You Know?

The train bridge at Merriman, near Richmond in the Northern Cape, was constructed in 1884 as part of the Cape Government Railways' expansion into the interior. This bridge spans the Ongers River (also spelled Ongersrivier) and was a critical infrastructure component of the railway line connecting De Aar to the diamond fields of Kimberley and further north. The bridge is a steel girder structure, typical of late 19th-century British colonial railway engineering, and facilitated the transport of goods, livestock, and passengers through the arid Karoo region. Merriman itself was named after John X. Merriman, a prominent Cape politician and later Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, and the railway station there was a key stop on the line.

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