Notwithstanding the difficulties, attending the erection of such a massive bridge upon such a site, construction was carried out so rapidly that the first train was enabled to cross the structure within about eighteen months of work being commenced. The celerity with which this task was completed was striking, bearing in mind that native labour was employed for the most part, under the supervision of English foremen and engineers. At the time it was built it ranked as the loftiest bridge in the world, but it has been deposed since from that premier position by the wonderful Fades viaduct which spans the Sioule River in the French province of Puy de Dôme, where the train crosses the water at a height of 434½ feet. By the time the Victoria bridge was able to permit trains to pass from bank to bank, the end of steel had been hurried towards Kalomo, the capital of North-Western Rhodesia, 1,733 miles from Cape Town. On this section another remarkable record was established. The engineer, Sir Charles Metcalfe, Bart., was in the field on one of his periodical visits, and was accompanied by an interested French engineer, who had built railways in French West Africa. The latter was greatly interested in the progress of the Cape to Cairo line, but observing the methods of the native workmen, ventured to ask how many miles of track could be laid per day. “Well, what do you think we can lay?” asked Sir Charles Metcalfe. “Oh, I don’t think you can lay more than half-a-mile. That seems to me a fair estimate,” remarked the French railway-builder. The English engineer had a brief conversation with his lieutenant in charge of the rail-laying operations, and the latter in a few brief words galvanised the whole of the crew into electric movement. In twenty minutes the track had advanced a quarter of a mile before the astonished French engineer’s eyes. He scarcely could credit what he had seen, and left the spot with a high regard for the English engineer’s organisation and methods of handling the natives to be able to wrest such a spurt at a moment’s notice.