![VanStadensRiverBridges](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/VanStadensRiverBridges.JPG)
The Van Stadens Bridge is a concrete arch bridge over the
Van Stadens River
Van Stadens River is a river in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. The river mouth is located about 30 km west of Port Elizabeth.
The river was named after Marthinus van Staden, one of the area’s pioneering farmers. He was also a ...
in the
Eastern Cape
The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha.
The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in ...
of
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
. It carries road traffic for the
N2 national highway.
Suicides at Van Stadens Bridge
The Van Stadens Bridge on the
N2 was opened on November 11, 1971. Just 12 days later, a
Uitenhage
Uitenhage ( ; ), officially renamed Kariega, is a South African town in the Eastern Cape Province. It is well known for the Volkswagen factory located there, which is the biggest car factory on the African continent. Along with the city of Port El ...
man jumped to his death, and its reputation as the ''Bridge of Death'' grew from there.
A R1-million video-camera surveillance system, paid for by private donors, was installed in August 2005. Gauteng journalist, Franz Kemp, raised the funds after his daughter Inge had jumped off the bridge in 2003. The local police and pedestrians have rescued some twenty people from jumping off since that time.
One such dramatic rescue took place when a man from
Humansdorp
Humansdorp is a small town and surrounding district in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, with a population of around 29,000 during the census of 2011. It is part of the Kouga Local Municipality of the Sarah Baartman District.
The town is th ...
wanted to commit suicide from the bridge but was stopped just in time by Freddie van Niekerk, who had just walked past him and said he "felt a sudden chill, as if God was speaking to me" and grabbed the man. Van Niekerk endangered his own life and battled for 45 minutes to stop the man from jumping. Van Niekerk remained with the desperate man, even after the suicidal man had grabbed his benefactor's arms and threatened to pull him off the bridge, too. Van Niekerk had to save that same man a second time that day when he escaped from the Thornhill police station and started jogging back towards the bridge again.
The
Thornhill police department, which has a specialist-counselling team on hand for the bereaved relatives of these suicides, retrieved the crushed bodies of an unnamed little girl, an older boy, and a man on whom they found a suicide note. They believe, based on the suicide note, that the three people died shortly after October 31, 2008. Piecing together the events leading to the tragedy, police came to the conclusion that the man must have thrown the two children over the side, sending them plummeting to the rocky floor of the gorge, before jumping himself. The bodies were not found in one place, suggesting that one of the children might have panicked and tried to flee after the first victim went over the side.
Captain Anton Smit said the traumatic discovery was made by two
Port Elizabeth
Gqeberha (), formerly Port Elizabeth and colloquially often referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, Sou ...
teenagers who had gone for a walk during a picnic near the
Van Stadens Wild Flower Reserve
The Van Stadens River Wild Flower Reserve ( af, Van Stadens-veldblomreservaat) near Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, South Africa, is one of the oldest nature reserves in the country.
Location
The park covers 600 hectares and lies 40 km west o ...
. Bryan van Vuuren, 17, and his friend Andre Trauernicht, 18, first discovered the body of the boy. The teens alerted
Thornhill police station and showed them where they discovered the body. Soon afterwards, the body of the man was found a few metres away. There was also a note indicating that there was another body somewhere among the bushes. The note also mentioned three women who should be notified of the deaths.
[
A police sniffer dog was called in and the body of the girl was discovered several metres further from where the other two bodies were found. The bodies were not severely decomposed and were identifiable. There was no sign of a vehicle parked near the bridge.][
In 2013, a 2,7m high steel mesh pedestrian barrier was constructed to deter suicide jumpers.]
See also
*List of arch bridges by length
This list of the longest arch bridge spans ranks the world's arch bridges by the length of their main span. The length of the main span is the most common way to rank bridges as it usually correlates with the engineering complexity involved in des ...
*Suicide bridge
A suicide bridge is a bridge used frequently by people to end their lives, most typically by jumping off and into the water or ground below. A fall from the height of a tall bridge into water may be fatal, although some people have survived jumps ...
References
External links
* {{Structurae, id=20002272, title=Van Stadens River Bridge
Bridges in South Africa
Bridges completed in 1971
Concrete bridges
Deck arch bridges
Buildings and structures in the Eastern Cape
Transport in the Eastern Cape
N2 road (South Africa)