Five Spectacular Canadian Bridges

I don’t know if it’s because I’m a man or not but I love anything that’s extremely big and huge. Big trucks, engines, houses and yes bridges. Since Canada has so many obstacles within its terrain it’s only natural that Canadian engineers would devise ways around or over them.

With that said here’s an article on only five of Canada’s most spectacular bridges. After all where would we all be without a bridge? Stranded!

1. New Brunswick, Worlds Longest Covered Bridge

This might be one of Canada’s most recognizable bridges. This is known as the “Covered Bridge” in Hartland New Brunswick. It was originally constructed by the Hartland Bridge Company which was formed by residents and construction workers on both sides of the St. Johns River. The bridge was to be an easy and direct means of transportation to both sides of St. Johns.

The bridge officially opened July 4, 1901 and was bought five years later by the Government of New Brunswick. About 10 years later some of the bridge supports had suffered severe damage in April 1920 when big chunks of ice smashed into them. It would be 2 years before the bridge would be operational again.

Finally in 1922, the government had to decide to cover the bridge after the repairs were complete and eventually added a sidewalk in 1945. The bridge went on to be declared a National Historic Site then in 1999 became a Provincial Historic Site.

To this day the bridge is still in use and you can still drive across it but weight restrictions are in place so be sure if you’re visiting the bridge to be driving a light vehicle.

Also residents say there is an old myth that goes before you enter the tunnel of the covered bridge, make a wish and cross your fingers and hold a breath until you reach the other side. Once on the other side your wish will come true!

2. Prince Edward Island, Confederation Bridge

The Confederation Bridge is now known as one of Canada’s top engineering achievements of the 20th century. It was built mainly to connect Prince Edward Island to the mainland of New Brunswick.

It took 5,000 workers, 1 billion dollars and 4 years to complete it and was finally opened to the public and traffic in May 1997. The maximum speed limit on the bridge is 80 km’s and takes about 10-15 minutes to fully cross people say. There is also a toll charge of course.

This bridge is spectacular because it’s known to be the longest bridge over ice-covered water and can stand up against the harshest Canadian weather.

The bridge is beautiful in pictures but more of an extraordinary site in person. So if you’re ever visiting New Brunswick or Prince Edward Island then make sure to stop and see this site!

3. British Columbia, Lions Gate Bridge

Now I couldn’t write an article about bridges without mentioning British Columbia’s spectacular Lions Gate Bridge. Now the bridge has kind of an interesting history in the sense the land one side was original bought by the famous beer company/family “Guinness”. Afterwards talks went on about how easy it would be to ship products straight across on a bridge instead of going miles out of the way to cross to the North side of Vancouver or whatever side you happen to be on.

Construction started on March 31, 1937 after years of planning and debating and at the time with the depression the work was badly needed. Construction and road crews worked day and night to complete the task. Only about a year and a half later on November 14, 1938 the bridge was opened to traffic and a year after that King George VI and Queen Elizabeth presided over the official opening. The Guinness family went on to eventually sell the bridge to the British Columbia government.

At the time of completion the bridge had cost nearly six million to build, was 5,890 feet long and is the longest suspension bridge in western Canada I believe.

4. Quebec City, Quebec’s Cantilever Bridge

Now I know to some readers this bridge might not seem as special as the others but trust me it is. The loss of life due to this one little bridge being made seems like a tragedy to me since owners and engineers of the bridge knew before hand it was only a matter of time before something happened.

Somewhere around 1904 the residents of Quebec decided they needed an easier way to cross the St. Lawrence River to get to other parts of Quebec City since the only way was by canoe or boat. With that they hired engineers and set out to construct the world’s longest cantilever bridge.

Construction started out fine and everything seem to be going well for almost four years but when nearing completion one of the engineers noticed that the main support beams had warped and slightly bent from the massive weight. He met with the owner of the bridge and head engineers and explained the steel support beams to hold main sections of the bridge where not strong enough to handle the weight and have bent and slightly twisted.

At first the head engineers played the problem off as minor but after constant complaining and letters from inspectors and so on they decided they better look into it. Finally on Aug 29, 1907 after a meeting with top engineers in N.Y. an immediate stop work order was placed and was suppose to be telegraphed off but it was too late.

Shortly after the telegraph was sent workers where lifting the middle steel section of the bridge into place when one of the support beams on the bridge basically failed causing the whole section to plunge into the river killing 75 out of 86 workers. The bridge was eventually completed but at a cost of a lot of innocent lives.

The bridge was declared a historic monument in 1987 by the Canadian and American Society of Civil Engineers and then in 1996 was declared a National Historic Site of Canada.

5.  Saskatoon, Broadway Bridge

I figured I would finish off my article with a more eye appealing bridge. This bridge is located in Saskatchewan and was built in 1932 at the time of depression and was a project to help keep the many unemployed workers still working a bit.

In my opinion this bridge itself is a work of art and is a must see if ever in the area.

So that’s it my list of only 5 amazing and spectacular Canadian bridges. Please keep in mind that all names might not be 100 percent accurate since local residents usually have their own names or the names have been changed over the years. I tried to use the most common ones that others can use if they want to research more on each bridge.