In the early 1870s, English civil engineer Joseph Newey was headhunted by the Cape Colony's Public Works Department (PWD) to construct an iron-lattice girder bridge across the Buffalo River at King William's Town (known as Qonce today), and another over the Great Fish River at Committees Drift.
Newey's skill and tenacity during the construction of the Great Fish River bridge in particular led to the extension of his role at the PWD
