The “Sugar Bridge” was built as part of a plan to provide a highway from Cape Town to the Eastern Cape, and opened in 1852 after several years of complex engineering and persistent problems: not the least of which is the tendency of the Buffejachts river to flood. This was a fearsome proposition, and it was decided that the piers should be made from massive blocks of local sandstone, to better withstand the force of the river. The solution was to build stone piers topped by a timber deck. There was a quarry nearby which would supply good quality sandstone, but where would timber of sufficient strength and length be obtained? By chance the Robert, en route from Burma to England with a cargo of teak, was wrecked at the mouth of the Lourens River at the beginning of 1847. The wood was ideal for a bridge deck, and enough timber for this purpose was purchased for £400 at the salvage auction, shipped to Port Beaufort and then hauled to the site by ox wagon, reportedly at the exorbitant transport cost of £800. The design Engineer saw a problem looming. The stones of the piers might each weigh a ton or two, but they would still be liable to move under the force of a flood if they were not held together with strong mortar. It was decided to use gypsum, better known as Plaster of Paris, as the cementing agent, and so an order was sent to France for a supply from the quarry in Montmartre which was its principal source. Something had to be added to the mix to prevent it from setting too quickly and the handiest retarding agent in the Cape in 1847 was common household sugar. The good citizens of Swellendam were no doubt fascinated when the materials for the bridge started to arrive on site – casks of Plaster of Paris, large teak beams, special saws to cut the stone blocks – and sacks of sugar! Surely these crazy Englishmen, reputedly members of the Royal Engineers (they weren’t) were not going to build a bridge out of sugar, the stuff Tant Sannie used for her famous koeksusters! But into the mix went the sparkling crystals, and so the new masterpiece became the “Sugar Bridge” Local legend has it that one particularly large sandstone block was so heavy that it broke the wheel of the wagon on which it was being carted from the quarry to the bridge site. The stone then slid off the back of the wagon and killed the brake-man, one Antonie. The stone was then rolled on tree trunks where it provided a convenient platform for unloading the timber before it was manhandled into position on the deck. On completion of construction some enterprising locals rolled “Antonie’s stone” to a high spot on the road where became a local landmark and a well known resting place on the highway. Antonie’s Stone can be seen on the mountain side of the National Road at the turn off to the farm Appelbosch. The Sugar Bridge carried traffic along the Garden Route highway for 101 years, until the N2 was opened in 1953. The bridge continued to carry local traffic, but the timber was beginning to deteriorate. At one stage there was an outbreak of punctures in village vehicles, until it was found that the heads of the nails in the bridge deck had worn away, leaving sharp spikes which penetrated the tyres. Then in the 1980′s a flood damaged one of the piers, and with the deck also deteriorating rapidly, it was decided to close the bridge permanently. The bridge has been declared a National Monument but due to lack of funds has never been restored to its former glory. Hopefully the romance of the Sugar Bridge will survive
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