History of Livingstone

In the mid 1890s Rhodesian Railways had reached Bulawayo in Southern Rhodesia spurring industrial development there, fuelled by the coal mines at Hwange just 110 km (68 mi) south-east of Mosi-oa-Tunya. The railway was extended to Hwange for the coal, but Rhodes' vision was to keep pushing north to extend the British Empire, and he would have built it to Cairo if he could. In 1904 the railway reached the Falls on the southern side and construction of the Victoria Falls Bridge started. Too impatient to wait for its completion, Rhodes had the line from Livingstone to Kalomo built and operations started some months in advance of the bridge using a single locomotive which was conveyed in pieces by temporary cable way across the gorge next to the bridge building site.

With the new Bridge open in September 1905, Livingstone boomed as British colonial settlers arrived and the British South Africa Company moved the capital of the territory there in 1907. In 1911 the company merged the territory with North-Eastern Rhodesia as Northern Rhodesia.

Livingstone prospered from its position as a gateway to trade between north and south sides of the Zambezi, as well as from farming in the Southern Province and commercial timber production from forests to its north-west. British settlers established local schools for their children, several churches, dining and entertaining businesses, local chambers of commerce, several banks, and large numbers of elegant colonial mansions and houses were erected which still stand. Although the capital was moved to Lusaka in 1935 to be closer to the economic heartland of the Copper belt, industries based on timber, hides, tobacco, cotton (including textiles) and other agricultural products continued to grow under careful management and sustainable development of