The Japoma Bridge (also known as the Edea German Bridge or the German Bridge) is a former railway bridge over the Sanaga River near Edea,

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

. Note there is now another bridge across the

Dibamba River The Dibamba River is in the Littoral Region of southern Cameroon, emptying into the Cameroon estuary near the city of Doula. Location The Dibamba river has a length of and a catchment area of . Average discharge at the river mouth is 480 cubic ...

called the Yapoma Bridge. It is sometimes called Japoma Bridge, which causes confusion, for example, in accounts of the fighting during WW1 - see the

First Battle of Edea The First Battle of Edea involved the British and French assault on German forces stationed in the village of Edea during the Kamerun campaign of the First World War. Allied forces from Duala launched their advance on 20 October. Following sti ...

. Gorges (1920: 153) shows the other one.

History and technical details

The steel arch bridge was designed and built by the Gutehoffnungshütte of

Oberhausen Oberhausen (, ) is a city on the river Emscher in the Ruhr Area, Germany, located between Duisburg and Essen ( ). The city hosts the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and its Gasometer Oberhausen is an anchor point of the European Rout ...

. Before being delivered, the bridge was assembled in Germany so it could be tested. It was then disassembled and transported in pieces to Cameroon by boat in 1911. It measures 160m in length, and was the largest in Africa at the time of erection. The vertical columns starting at the arch grille are used as a suspension for the roadway. One half of the arch was first assembled on the ground and the other half built on floating barges, which were then assembled. It remains as an architectural relic of the German colonial era in Cameroon. The strategic location of the bridge was a factor during the

First First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

and Second Battles of Edea during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. On 2 August 1937, the bridge was also visited by the entire crew of the German ship ''

Wahehe The Hehe ( Swahili collective: Wahehe) are a Bantu ethnolinguistic group based in Iringa Region in south-central Tanzania, speaking the Bantu Hehe language. In 2006, the Hehe population was estimated at 805,000, up from the just over 250,000 r ...

'', with certain officers going right up to the bank of the river, in what was thought to be a reconnaissance of the area. Until the early 1980s, the bridge was the only crossing point over the Sanaga Rivery for trains, vehicles and pedestrians. It is now used as a footpath and cycle track.

Gallery

File:Brücke über den Sanaga-Südarm. Einschwimmen des eisernen Überbaues.png, Floating the steel superstructure on the river during construction. File:Brücke über den Sanaga Sud Arm im Zuge der Kameruner Mittellandbahn.png, Diagram showing the measurements of the bridge, from a German book. 1916 File:Photo Pont Allemand d'Edéa.JPG, Modern view of the bridge.

References

{{coord, 3, 48, 18, N, 10, 07, 26, E, region:CM-LT_type:landmark_source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title Railway bridges in Cameroon