Birchenough Bridge & Great Zimbabwe Bird 20 Cents Zimbabwe Authentic Coin Money for Jewelry and Craft Making (Single-Arch Suspension Bridge)

Birchenough Bridge & Great Zimbabwe Bird 20 Cents Zimbabwe Authentic Coin Money for Jewelry and Craft Making (Single-Arch Suspension Bridge)

Reverse: Birchenough bridge over the Save River (pronounced Sa've), value below.
Lettering: 20

Obverse: Representation of the protective bird, the most famous of Zimbabwe sculptures dated between XII and XIV century. Protective sculpture in the city of Great Zimbabwe, the capital of Monomotapa Empire and led Gokomere ancestors of Shona, the people of southern Africa.
Lettering: ZIMBABWE

Features
Issuer Zimbabwe
Period Republic (1980-date)
Type Standard circulation coin
Years 2001-2003
Value 20 Cents (0.20 ZWD)
Currency First Dollar (1980-2006)
Composition Nickel plated steel
Weight 5.5 g
Diameter 23.0 mm
Thickness 2.0 mm
Shape Round
Orientation Medal alignment ↑↑
Demonetized Yes
Number N# 16906
References KM# 4a, Schön# 58a

Wikipedia:
Birchenough Bridge is called after Sir Henry Birchenough. Birchenough Bridge is located 62 km from Chipinge in the Manicaland province of Zimbabwe.

History
The bridge was funded at a cost of £145 000.00 and planned by the Beit Trust, a foundation chaired at the time by Sir Henry Birchenough whose ashes are buried beneath the structure of the bridge. Ralph Freeman, the bridge's designer, was also the structural designer on the Sydney Harbour Bridge and consequently the two bridges bear a close resemblance, although Birchenough is only two-thirds as long as the Australian bridge. It was built by Dorman Long and completed in 1935. At a length of 1,080 feet (329 m) it was the third longest single-arch suspension bridge in the world at the time.

In the 1970s a 40-tonne load limit was imposed on the bridge but in 1984 the bridge was widened (roadway: 7.2 m to 10 m wide) and strengthened as part of the World Bank's Highway Project One. The village which sprang up next to the bridge has become the centre of a small-scale farming area.

The bridge is widely considered by Zimbabweans as being one of the country's finest pieces of engineering, and as such, it appears on the twenty-cent coin. The Zimbabwe Department of Roads has reduced its load capacity not to allow any vehicle weighing more than 25 tonnes. This has reduced business activities in the areas nearby since heavy vehicle trucks will not be allowed to cross the bridge.

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The Birchenough Bridge
Source: http://rhodesianheritage.blogspot.com/2010/02/birchenough-bridge.html

THE magnificent bridge spanning the Sabi River, a gift to the Public of Southern Rhodesia from the funds of the Beit Trust has, at the request of the people of Rhodesia, been named " THE BIRCHENOUGH BRIDGE" in recognition of the services given to the country by Sir Henry Birchenough, Bart., G.C.M.G., the Chairman of the Beit Railway Trust and President of the British South Africa Company. Portraits in bronze of Sir Henry Birchenough, by Mr. Sydney Kendrick, and inscription panels in bronze have been inserted in the east and west abutments.

The bridge was built to give the people residing in the eastern districts access across the Sabi River to the central districts of Southern Rhodesia. In addition, the bridge will serve to open up to visitors from the Union of South Africa and elsewhere one of the most beautiful mountain districts in the territory.

The bridge crosses the Sabi River with a single arch which rises to 280 feet above the river, and is 1,080 feet in length, a span which is exceeded by only two other arch spans:—-the great bridge crossing Sydney Harbour, and the Bayonne Bridge over the Kill van Kull Creek, south of New York.

The Birchenough Bridge was designed by Mr. Ralph Freeman, consulting engineer to the Beit Trust, who also designed the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Beit Bridge over the Limpopo River.

The bridge is the first long-span bridge to be con­structed in the British Empire with modern high tensile steel. With trifling exception, the whole structure is made of Dorman Long & Company's " Chromador" steel—a material possessing a strength 50 per cent, greater than that of the mild steel generally used for bridgework and 20 per cent, stronger than the silicon steel used for Sydney Bridge. The use of this material made it possible to construct the bridge at a moderate cost as a single span. This avoided the necessity for making piers in the river bed which was found to be of a shifting and treacherous character. Even if the river bed had been normally stable, the type of bridge adopted, which was selected by the Trustees after full consideration of possible alternatives, was found to be the least costly.

The roadway has a width of 18 feet and is designed for heavy-type Colonial loading. Footways are formed on either side of the road so as to allow for the uninterrupted passage of two lines of traffic.

The total weight of steel is 1,500 tons and it is note­worthy that this is the same weight as that of the Victoria Falls Bridge designed originally for two lines of light railway traffic, bat of less than half the span of the Birchenough Bridge.

In the combination which the design provides of an exceptional span with light weight and small capital outlay, the arch span is unique in bridge construction.

The bridge was erected by the same process as that used for the Victoria Falls Arch and subsequently for the Sydney arch—by building out the arch in two halves as cantilevers, anchored back to the rock shores by wire ropes. The anchorage ropes used were the actual ropes used for the Sydney Harbour Bridge and are now incorporated in the Birchenough Bridge as the suspenders of the roadway.

Material was delivered to the west bank of the river by road and the rapid and completely successful transport of the heavy and cumbrous pieces of material under conditions of exceptional difficulty, was an achievement for which great credit is due to the Rhodesia Railways Road Transport organisation and to the Roads Department of the Govern­ment of Southern Rhodesia. The steelwork for the east side was carried across the river by a cableway.

Foundations were commenced in April 1934 and were ready for steelwork in November. The arch span was completed on June 17th, 1935, and the concrete roadway was practically complete at the end of September, 1935.

The only work then remaining was unimportant auxiliary construction and painting. The whole of the works were finished so as to enable the bridge to be opened to traffic on December 20th, 1935, the time occupied by the entire construction being 20 months.

The contractors for the supply of steel, manufacture of steelwork, and erection, were Dorman Long & Company, Limited, of Middlesbrough, England, whose previous experience, as the builders of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and the arch bridge, of 530 feet span over the Tyne, Newcastle, was of great value.

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Wikipedia:
The stone-carved Zimbabwe Bird is the national emblem of Zimbabwe, appearing on the national flags and coats of arms of both Zimbabwe and Rhodesia, as well as on banknotes and coins (first on the Rhodesian pound and then on the Rhodesian dollar). It probably represents the bateleur eagle or the African fish eagle. The bird's design is derived from a number of soapstone sculptures found in the ruins of the ancient city of Great Zimbabwe.

It is now the definitive icon of Zimbabwe, with Matenga (2001) listing over 100 organisations which now incorporate the Bird in their logo.

The original carved birds are from the ruined city of Great Zimbabwe, which was built by ancestors of the Shona, starting in the 11th century and inhabited for over 300 years. The ruins, after which modern Zimbabwe was named, cover some 730 hectares (1,800 acres) and are the largest ancient stone construction in sub-Saharan Africa. Among its notable elements are the soapstone bird sculptures, about 40 centimetres (16 inches) tall and standing on columns more than 90 cm (3 ft) tall, which were originally installed on walls and monoliths within the city. They are unique to Great Zimbabwe; nothing like them has been discovered elsewhere.

Various explanations have been advanced to explain the symbolic meaning of the birds. One suggestion is that each bird was erected in turn to represent a new king, but this would have required improbably long reigns. More probably, the Zimbabwe birds represent sacred or totemic animals of the Shona – the bateleur eagle (Shona: chapungu), which was held to be a messenger from Mwari (God) and the ancestors, or the fish eagle (hungwe) which it has been suggested was the original totem of the Shona.

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