page_title: Brodie Henderson (engineer)
section_title: Early life and career
hierarchical_section_title: Brodie Henderson (engineer) / Early life and career
caption_attribution_description: English: Dona Ana Bridge in Sena, Mozambique
context_page_description: Sir Brodie Haldane Henderson, KCMG, CB was a British civil engineer. Henderson was primarily a railway engineer who worked for many railroad corporations across South America, Australasia and Africa. He was the consultant for the Dona Ana Bridge which, when it was built in 1935, was the longest railway bridge in the world with a length of 2.24 miles. He volunteered for service with the Royal Engineers at the outbreak of the First World War and was put in charge of railway lines used to tranposrt Allied troops and supplies. In this capacity he held the rank of a Brigadier-General of the British Army and his success in this role resulted in him being decorated by the British, French and Belgian governments.
  After the war Henderson worked with the Imperial War Graves Commission, as High Sheriff of Hertfordshire in 1924 and as president of the Institution of Civil Engineers. He was an important patron of John William Waterhouse, the pre-Raphaelite painter, and was the original owner of Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May.
context_section_description: Henderson was born on 6 March 1869 in Ealing, Middlesex to George and Eliza Henderson, his elder brother was Alexander Henderson the businessman and politician. His education was carried out in Germany, at Owens College in Manchester (now Victoria University) and at King's College London.  At the age of 16 he entered into a pupillage with locomotive manufacturers Beyer, Peacock and Company before transferring to James Livesey and Son, consulting civil engineers.  Some of his early projects was as assistant engineer during construction of the Algeciras Gibraltar Railway and a secondment in the civil engineer's department of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway.
  Henderson became a partner in the firm on 6 October 1891 and it was subsequently named Livesey, Son and Henderson.  He was named as senior partner in 1893.  Henderson's work was largely concerned with railways, which were often financed by his brother Alexander.  These included  the Buenos Aires Great Southern, Central Argentine, Antofagasta and the Midland of Western Australia railways. Henderson was also responsible for the construction of new docks in Buenos Aires and projects in Spain, China and Africa.
  Henderson's most famous project is the Dona Ana Bridge over the Zambezi River in Mozambique for the Beira Railroad Corporation, this bridge was built in 1935 and spanned a distance of 2.24 miles by 33 separate arches. This bridge was the longest railway bridge in the world for many years.  He was also responsible for the Transandine Railway which was tunnelled through the Andes Mountains between 1911 and 1925.
caption: Dona Ana Bridge after conversion to a road bridge in 1995
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON", "Image Model": "E2100", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "100", "Image YResolution": "100", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS2 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2007:05:01 21:57:34", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "212", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "838", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9069", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/334", "EXIF FNumber": "26/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2004:05:24 11:17:12", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2004:05:24 11:17:12", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "47/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "600", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "450", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "712", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "36", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}