This archive report was first published on 18 October 2019.
Kenya's Historic Bridge Linked to Man-Eater Lions Turns 120 ¶
Located in Tsavo West National Park, the 1900-meter-long concrete and metal bridge has been a marvel for motorists driving through the area on the Mombasa-Nairobi highway.
Commissioned two years ago, the bridge was built by Chinese engineers as part of the standard gauge railway (SGR) project, which started in 2014.
Standing on thick concrete pillars across the Tsavo River, the super bridge dwarfs a humble bridge on the old and narrower railway line installed across the same river, which starts at Mzima Springs and moves deeper into the park.
The old bridge, known as Tsavo Bridge, has been in existence for 120 years, built by Indian engineers working for the Imperial British East Africa Company in 1899.
The bridge was a crucial installation, opening up the dreaded section of the park, known for deadly lions, to sightseers and enabling travellers to soak in the beauty of the park.
A pair of lions roaming the region frustrated the building of the railway line, killing about 28 and mauled more than 100 railway workers within a year before they were gunned down.
The lions earned the name 'Man Eaters' and their terror is immortalised in the book 'The Man Easters of Tsavo and Other East African Adventures' published in 1907 by Lieutenant-Colonel John Henry Patterson, the head of the bridge construction project.
Scientists believe the lions may have developed a taste for human flesh from eating bodies of slaves abandoned in bushes by traders heading to and from Mombasa.
The deadly tale is further immortalised in the name of the region around the bridge, Man Eaters Hotel, an inn set up by a private investor in the area that overlooks the bridge.
