Dona Ana Bridge
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The Dona Ana Bridge spans the lower Zambezi River between the towns of Vila de Sena and Mutarara in Mozambique, effectively linking the two halves of the country. It was originally constructed as a railway bridge in 1935 to link Malawi and the Moatize coal fields to the port Beira. At that time, it was the longest railway bridge in Africa, with a length of about 3 km.
In the 1980s, during the Mozambican Civil War, it was rendered unusable. In 1995, it was repaired with funds from USAID and converted to a single-lane bridge for vehicle traffic (as shown in the picture). Although not located on a primary highway, it provided an alternative route over the Zambezi; the only other two options are the bridge at Tete and the road ferry at Caia (which is not always reliable). The Dona Ana Bridge is the longest bridge to cross the Zambezi and the last before its mouth in the Indian Ocean. However, in 2007, construction started on a bridge to replace the Caia ferry, which (though shorter) will become the last bridge before the mouth.
It was closed to vehicular traffic on July 1, 2006, and work to reconvert it to a railway bridge has started. It is scheduled to be in operation by 2008.
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