Nelson Mandela Bridge

The bridge was the centrepiece of the Newtown and Braamfontein urban regeneration projects of the early 2000s, knitting together two inner-city quarters that the railway corridor had kept apart for a century. It cost around R38 million and was engineered by South African firm BKS to a design that pairs two distinctive A-frame masts with 54 cable stays.

By day the bridge is a working pedestrian and vehicle link, and the rail yards below it are a busy reminder of how central Johannesburg's railway history is to its identity. At night the masts and cables are lit in colours that change for national commemorations, Pride, World Aids Day, the Springboks and the Bafana Bafana national football team — a quiet civic ritual that has become a fixture of the city's after-dark skyline.

The northern end drops you straight onto Jorissen Street in Braamfontein, with Constitution Hill, the Neighbourgoods Market and Wits University all within a 10-minute walk. The southern end opens into Newtown, with the Museum of African Design, Niki's Oasis jazz club and the Sci-Bono Discovery Centre clustered around Mary Fitzgerald Square.

Walking the bridge as a tourist is fine in daylight and as part of a structured city tour. We include the crossing as a short photo and viewpoint stop on our Johannesburg City Tour, with the rail yards below and the CBD skyline as the backdrop — one of the most under-rated pieces of modern engineering in the country and a literal bridge between two of Johannesburg's most reinvented quarters.

Quick facts: 284 metres long, deck 26 metres wide, two A-frame pylons each 42 metres tall, 54 stay cables. The bridge carries roughly 30,000 vehicles a day and is one of the most photographed structures in Johannesburg after the Hillbrow Tower.