This bridge was designed not only for heavy freight cars to travel over the Assiniboine River but also for steamships to travel under it. The center span of the bridge lifts and is known as a bascule bridge (from the French word for "see-saw"). Like a see-saw, the bridge deck and the huge concrete counterweight are counterbalanced on massive bronze pivot pins. Relatively small electric motors and brakes move the concrete weight down and inwards causing the bridge deck to rise. The bridge to the west (your right) was also a bascule bridge, although the counterweight and machinery was removed.The bridge, completed by 1914, is based on designs by Joseph Strauss (1870-1938) of the Strauss Trunnion Bascule Bridge Company of Chicago, Illinois, important bridge engineers and designers of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge (1937). Although Federal regulations at the time required all railway bridges that crossed rivers to lift, it is unknown whether this one ever did.

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Show me all markers in:  Winnipeg, Manitoba  |  Division No. 11  |  R3C  |  Manitoba  |  Canada

The Creation of Manitoba
Forks of the Red and Assiniboine
The Path of Time
The Five Saint Boniface Cathedrals
Twin Oaks
St. Andrew's Rectory
St. Andrews Anglican Church
Dominion Lands Survey System
St. Andrews Caméré Curtain Dam
New Iceland

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