of the line for two years before handing it over to the NZASM. On 7 May 1892, the line was completed from Bloemfontein to the Vaal River Bridge (the border of the ZAR); on 15 September 1892, the line from the Vaal River Bridge to Germiston (65 km) opened; and on 1 January 1893, Pretoria was connected to Cape Town as well as Port Elizabeth. Upon completion of this railway line, it became possible to import heavy machinery, both for gold mining and for the construction of the western portion of the Oosterlijn. Zuid-Oosterlijn The Zuid-Oosterlijn was the last of the three NZASM lines connected to foreign rail lines and the coast. After the discovery of gold, the Cape Colony and the Colony of Natal raced to connect the Rand with the coast. Until the line from Ladysmith reached Newcastle, the governments of Natal and the ZAR agreed to extend the line from Newcastle to the Rand. The line reached Newcastle on 15 May 1890, and was immediately extended to Charlestown, the last town in Natal leading up to the ZAR border. The railway, which climbed 452 m in the 57 km between Newcastle and Charlestown, was opened by President Kruger of the ZAR and the Governor of Natal on 7 April 1891. When it reached Laing's Nek Pass, a 674-m tunnel was built to move it through. The NGR (Natal Government Railways) line had already reached Charlestown on 7 April 1891, but President Kruger did not give them permission to extend their line into the ZAR before the Oosterlijn was finished to Delagoa Bay. The Delagoa Bay line was commissioned on 1 January 1895. In accordance with the terms of an agreement forged on 3 February 1894, between the ZAR government and the NGR, the NGR built the 250-km link between the Natal-ZAR border and the existing NZASM rail network. The first portion of 210 km between the border and Heidelberg opened on 27 April 1895, and the remainder opened on 15 November of that same year. On 1 December 1895, the 4-km link between the border and Charlestown opened, and that 15 December, the 41-km link between Heidelberg and Union Junction (9 km from Germiston) opened. In November 1894, the ZAR and Great Britain agreed to meet in Swaziland, with President Kruger and the British High Commissioner Sir Henry Loch as signatories. Neither Kruger nor Loch's countries recognized