Linden: The only town in Guyana in which a river (the Demerara) runs through it. I took this photograph on Tuesday November 28, 2017, standing on the eastern bank of the Demerara river in MacKenzie, looking westward across the Demerara river to Wismar. As a 19 year old lad some 60 years ago, I swam across the Demerara river at this very point – from Wismar to MacKenzie. That was long before the three wards of MacKenzie, Wismar and Christianburg were given the umbrella name of Linden, dedicated to President Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham. You would also like to know that I lived at Christianburg for a short period during the mid-1940s. I was there at the end of the Second World War in 1945, and can clearly remember the jollification of the people, when the news was received that Germany was defeated; to some degree, with the help of those brave Guyanese who gave service in the British West Indian Regiment. Before the construction of the Soesdyke/Linden highway, travel from this location to Georgetown was by the Sprostons steamer, the “RH CARR”, and launches such as the “Sun Chapman”. There were also some flights from Georgetown by the British Guiana Airways Corporation Grumman Goose amphibious six-seater airplane which landed in the Demerara river just about a quarter of a mile further up-stream from this location in the photograph. That was even before the MacKenzie/Wismar Bridge was built. Of interest, is that of the 345 of those planes which were manufactured and deployed internationally, two were in operation in British Guiana, and flew all over the colony.
