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Click to view map Coordinates: | Fourteen Streams, the junction of the C.G.R. line to Klerksdorp for Johannesburg, is 695 miles from Cape Town, and has a post-office, telegraph office and an hotel. The Cape Government Railway crosses the Vaal River a little to the south of Fourteen Streams by a bridge 1,330 feet (405.4 metre) long. Probably no name in South African nomenclature has excited the public imagination more than the name of this station. How many thousands of travellers have expected to behold fourteen magnificent streams of water running through the thirsty land and have wondered about the width, depth, source, course and outlet of these wonderful streams. Never a train of new passengers ever crosses the bridge without a craning of new necks looking for fourteen streams, often, in droughty times without seeing any at all. The bridge was dismantled in 1946 and moved all the way down to the Eastern Cape where it now bridges the Great Kei river. The original piers can still be seen crossing the Vaal river. All truncated references not fully cited below are those of Joanna Walker's original text and cited in full in the 'Bibliography' entry of the Lexicon. References:
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