Matadi Bridge, Suspension bridge in Matadi, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Matadi Bridge is a suspension bridge over the Congo River just downstream from the port of Matadi, at one of the river's narrowest points. Its main span measures 520 metres, and each of its two steel towers is built as a single rigid frame of bar members. It was completed in 1983 and carries road traffic; a planned railway line across it was never built.
The bridge was built between 1979 and 1983 with Japanese engineering and was the longest suspension span in Africa when it opened. Its completion significantly changed how goods and people moved across the Congo River at this location.
The bridge is officially named after the OEBK, the Organisation pour l'équipement de Banana-Kinshasa, and was long called Pont Maréchal after President Mobutu, who laid its first stone in 1973. In June 2004 the Congolese transport minister Joseph Olengankoy renamed it in Mobutu's honour. Its 1983 inauguration drew thousands of Congolese who crossed on foot, and it remains a symbol of Congolese-Japanese cooperation.
The bridge links Matadi with the Seke-Banza territory on the road to Boma, so it carries ore and goods traffic toward the seaports. An electronic toll system was installed at the crossing in December 2009. A railway line was planned across the deck toward Boma and Muanda but was never built.
A railway line across the bridge, intended to link Boma and Muanda, was planned but never built. The bridge was inaugurated on 20 May 1983, and in June 2004 it was renamed in honour of Marshal Mobutu, who had laid the first stone in 1973.
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