Paul Sauer Bridge also known as the Storms River Bridge Eastern Cape, South Africa
One of 5 large concrete arch bridges located along South Africa’s beautiful N2 Garden route from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town, the Paul Sauer or Storms River bridge was the first and possibly most interesting to be built along the 2-lane highway. The largest and most famous bridge on the route is the Bloukrans bridge - Africa’s highest ever at 708 feet (216 mtrs) and the home of the world’s highest bridge bungy jump. This is also the only highway in the world outside of China or Italy to have 3 bridges in excess of 500 feet (152 mtrs) in height. Completed in 1956, the Ricardo Morandi designed bridge was built 15 years prior to Van Stadens and 28 years before the 3 Bloukrans-area arches came along in 1984. Storms River is unusual for having inclined spandrel supports that radiate out from the main arch rib. The approach supports are also inclined in the opposite direction - balancing out the profile of the entire bridge. The use of inclined supports is a Morandi trait visible on nearly all of his bridges. Not so evident is the unique construction method by which Morandi built the bridge. Instead of using a highline and adding segments of the arch until the two halves meet in the center, Morandi had both sides of the arch built vertically above the foundations with a climbing framework on either side of the canyon. The two sides were then carefully tilted outward over the gorge until they could rest on each other at the crown.
In 1986 the Storms River bridge was widened and rehabilitated. Corrosion damage was repaired using impregnating inhibitors and silane cream. Elastic protective coatings were also applied to protect the arch and columns.
HOW TO LOG THIS VIRTUAL CACHE AS A FIND
1. Attach a picture of yourself with your caching device with the bridge in the background, your caching name or the date written on something. Unfortunately, this is needed to prevent the armchair logging of this cache.
2. At the main entrance to the lookout point (between the Take away and Restaurant) you will find 21 photos of bridges across the world. Please have a look at the 4th photo in the 2nd row and answer the following question: What is the name of the Bridge and the location of the bridge? (Send answer to CO - please do not post answer)
Failure to answer the question and provide a picture with your log will (after a reasonable amount of time) result in removal of your log.
Virtual Rewards 2.0 - 2019/2020
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between June 4, 2019 and June 4, 2020. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 2.0 on the Geocaching Blog.