Salt Lake Tribune | 1911-04-23 | Page 32 | Knew Bridge Well

I j KNEW BRIDGE WELL, o Georc Carpenter of Salt Lake Familiar With Scene of African Disaster. H. The disaster on the Kowio railroad had long been anticipated by thr residents of r the Eastern province. Cape Ulmij. , South Africa. Is the statement of Georgo . E. Carpenter, the publicity man for the h Orpheum theater. Prior to coming to the .. United States. Mr. Carpenter owned a f- half interest in an ostrich farm, and for if- four years he lived on tho place which ;( had for one boundary line the railroad '"There were many people." he said last a night, "who never would go Into Gra-hamslown Gra-hamslown on the train because of thai ?i" bridge, but would saddle up and rido horseback over the old transport wagon U ""'I have ridden over the Blaukrantz bridge a score of times, and to this day CF,1 still shudder as I recall that ride. X' "The Kowio railroad was built by cap-italists cap-italists who were exploiting Port Alfred. The port never materialized beyond the 3 one coasting steamer and the galvanized ;t iron shack stage. Tho railroad was ac- cordinglv operated for the benefit of the -H Africander fanners, most of whom pre-. pre-. ferred to stick to their wagons and ox Jloteams as means of transport. With no - revenue to speak of. II goes without Tsaylng that the roadbed was In wretched : condition, it used to be said that- tho Jutraln would slop out on the veldt while. If tho crew chopped mimosa thorn bushes ' 31 when the fuel Van low. "But the Kowio railroad was noted .?:i'or Its famous brhlse. the first steel X' bridge. I believe, to be built in South f Africa, by Americans. It must have been thirty years old when It collapsed today. .n It was' an airv. frail looking structure .'J. that bridged the kloof (canyon) In one f'.'fpan. -s the train crawled across It. - one could look sheer down from the car T windows on the rocks ami brush below. e:You could have put tho Utah hotel, with i.a flve-storv building on top of It. very comfortably beneath that bridge And the fauhlon In which it creaked and T'-:KioHned was. to say tho least, dlscon-t'r dlscon-t'r rorllng. Passengers Invariably brcalhed - a slsh of relief when that bridge was r PajIni,krantK is th Cape Dutch for -Blu precipice. In the peculiar lopog-Z.-raphv of the country, krant-es arc very J much In ovidence between Grahamstown VI kihI the coast, and. like everything else - - In Mm Cape, they have Dutch names. "The building of the bridge was a h .'great event. The Africander farmers -- and stock raisers camo a hundred miles n or moie to watch the operation, while , th Kaffirs nevr tired of telling years f afterwards of the feats of the American "..'iteel gang in midair It was hotter than XA "The dispatches say twenty people r- were killed. That was a pretty big day 'j.for nassenger business on that old ram-V ram-V shackle line, as I recall It."