The story behind the half-built bridge in Cape Town

2 min read

If you’ve visited Cape Town in the last 50 or so years, you are sure to have seen the half-built bridge that decorates the north entrance of the CBD. The bridge, which is known as the Foreshore Freeway Bridge or Cape Town’s Unfinished Bridge, has been left unfinished since 1977, causing quite a few amusing urban legends to spring up as explanation for why the bridge was never finished.

After debates and discussions in the 1940s and 1950s on how to prepare for the anticipated traffic boom in Cape Town, construction of the freeway finally took off in the early 1970s. In 1977, however, the construction was halted without much explanation, and has been left incomplete to this day. The one side of the bridge has since been transformed into a public parking space, but the other side remains empty and unused. The bridges have featured in quite a few movie and TV shoots, including Black Mirror and adverts, as well as some fashion shoots.

Some theories have sprung up as to why the project was stopped. One is that the construction and engineering teams had made a calculation error, meaning that the two sides wouldn’t line up. Another is that a shopkeeper refused to sell his shop which stood where the flyover would pass, and thus the construction had to be stopped. In a boring turn of events, the official reason was related to funds running out and the bridges not being a priority anymore.

As recently as 2018, plans were drawn up to finish the bridges, but these fell through. In 2014 design students from the University of Cape Town were tasked with designing affordable alternatives for what to do with the bridge. Ideas that came up included a skate park, a roller coaster park, an arcade, and some sort of waterway. As of right now, there are no clear plans for the bridge, which has become a tourist attraction of sorts. Be sure to keep an eye out for it on your next trip to the Mother City!