Great Canadian Bridges

[Zach6668]

Selected bridge pictures that I took while rollerblading along the Rideau Canal in Ottawa, summer 2010:

Laurier Bridge


Somerset Pedestrian Bridge


Pretoria Bridge


Bank St. Bridge - one of my favorites to go under at night, as it lights up very nicely

[AuxTown]

Renamed the Corktown Footbridge.

From Wikipedia:

Corktown, not a town at all, was a series of shanties along the "Deep Cut" section of the Rideau Canal in Ottawa which existed during its construction and were erected by some of its Irish labourers. Many of the workers came penniless from County Cork in Ireland, giving it its name

Nice pics BTW

[jodelli]

Originally Posted by sa230e

And also taller than any building on the Detroit skyline - even the Renaissance Center. Imagine that, the tallest, proudest buildings in your city, dwarfed by a bridge pier.

As it is the Canadian tower of the Ambassador Bridge tops Windsor's tallest by about 7 m. (386ft-364ft).
But of course so do nearly two dozen buildings across the river so it's not the same.

[sa230e]

Holy shit. The Daily Show actually did a segment on the bridge!

http://watch.thecomedynetwork.ca/the...13/#clip840560

[Symz]

The Ambassador Bridge

source:http://www.flickr.com/photos/shivaniphotography/

[sonysnob]

^ That's beautiful. I love how the snow masks Detroit...

[Rico Rommheim]

The Champlain Bridge, which is canada's busiest bridge and owned by the federal Government is going to get rebuilt, here's an article about it and the bulk of the comments from the readers. It is heart warming.

Light rail on Montreal's wish list for new federally funded bridge


MONTREAL - The City of Montreal's wish list for the federally funded replacement of the aging Champlain Bridge includes a light rail transit system and eight car lanes, including two for public transit.
The city also wants the new bridge to be architecturally striking, like San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge or the Sydney Opera House in Australia.

The project is expected to cost up to $5 billion, a tab Ottawa says will be funded with the help of a private-public partnership and a toll system.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said last week his government was open to local input on the project.
The federal government oversees the management of a half-dozen major bridges, including three in Montreal.
It pays significant portions of the bridges' upkeep and, when the time comes, for their replacement.
The 50-year-old Champlain Bridge is among the country's busiest.

The City of Montreal outlined its wishes for the new bridge at a news conference Sunday and in an open letter addressed to federal Transport Minister Denis Lebel.
Real Menard, a member of Montreal's executive committee who made the announcement, said the city would like to launch an international architecture competition to encourage an identifiable design for the new bridge.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/light-rail-...203452850.html

I just thought I'd share of few user comments regarding this article, good for a few laughs I promise.

If Canadians pay to build this bridge, a Canadian Oath of Allegiance should be required before each bridge crossing.

Nah - let Pauline Marios Separate and she can pay for it herself.

LOL Get all the new Kewns whove infested that city to pay for it!

enough is enough . too much $$$ going to appease the damned frogs. let them separate and take thier share of the national debt with them

Another example of the leaching Federal Government feeding the bumps by stealing from the productive ones. Where is the money for any of our projects in Ontario Harper? Stop playing games and treat all provinces equally and hold the leaches by their neck & put them in their place.

Why is the federal gov't paying for a bridge for this city.. Does it build bridges for every city in this country.

[Robertpuant]

What a bunch of stupid ideas from the comments! Why pay it our-self when Alberta's oil money can pay it for us!

[Rico Rommheim]

Everytime I make the stupid mistake of reading internet comments I always realize that ordinary citizens of this country really don't like Montreal, and yet when we're about to quit they show up in droves and plead with us to stay in their bull shit country.


Bah whatever, not really on topic. Sorry I had to rant.

[Innsertnamehere]

that sort of attitude is what gets us in this situation.

Canadians hate Montreal because of the separatism, Montrealers want to separate because of the hate towards them.

its a never ending spiral..

also important to note (at least for now) it is OUR "bullshit country"

[Rico Rommheim]

My rant was moronic, but that's what I get for reading the user comments on yahoo.

But I'm really excited about the appearance of the new bridge, if Montreal can pull itself together and come up with a great bridge, it will highly enhance the skyline.

The new Port Mann bridge in Metro vancouver is terrific, I had the pleasure of seeing it for myself last year and it really does the job. But the new Champlain needs to go further than that and offer a design that is truly worthy of International attention. As far as bridges are concerned, canada has some pretty plain looking ones.

[Vaillant]

Originally Posted by Rico Rommheim

Everytime I make the stupid mistake of reading internet comments I always realize that ordinary citizens of this country really don't like Montreal, and yet when we're about to quit they show up in droves and plead with us to stay in their bull shit country.


Bah whatever, not really on topic. Sorry I had to rant.

so true!!

[Chadillaccc]

I wouldn't say it's that we don't like Montreal, everyone I know who's been to Montreal loves the city and people. I'd say it's that we are just sick of Quebec's bitching and whining about how bad they are treated by the rest of Canada even though y'all have the cheapest services and post-secondary education in the country if not the continent(thanks to the $2 000 per capita in transfer payments). We come in droves to stop separation because we don't want our incredible country divided(and Quebec is a huge part of the incredible-ness) and for some reason we have some hope that maybe the whining will stop someday and they will just be happy with the autonomy and 8 billion a year we give them.

I'm not saying everyone in Quebec is like that, but it's all we see in the news and shit, so it's how people see it. Plus that dirty b*tch of a premier that was just elected, talking about taking down the national flag in the Quebec Provincial legislature! Treasonous, ridiculous. That is probably what pisses me off the most, personally.

[Metro-One]

Please don't turn my bridge thread into a Quebec vs. Canada thread!

That being said, I sure wish we had a bridge or two in Metro Vancouver under federal jurisdiction, would be great to have them pick up the tab for the Port mann, hehe, or the now potential Massey Tunnel replacement (again, not against Montreal getting their's paid by the feds, just wish we could also get one or two replaced that way as well).

[davidivivid]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

Please don't turn my bridge thread into a Quebec vs. Canada thread!

Pierre Laporte bridge under construction in 1969:






http://www.quebecurbain.qc.ca/2005/0...-laporte-1969/


Pierre Laporte bridge nowadays:


http://fr.canoe.ca/cgi-bin/imprimer.cgi?id=799129



Added bonus: view you have from the bridge looking west:


http://marouenarras.com/?page_id=79

[Nathan]

Originally Posted by Vaillant

so true!!

Probably because many feel if "we" pay for it now, it might not be "ours" 3 referendums later. I think it's more fatigue about an issue that never seems to die even though 2 referendums have turned it down.

Besides, we know the regular commenters on news articles are usually the dregs of society (no offence meant to the few insightful posters who don't cover comment walls with drivel). Taking the hard-line comments as representative of the general public is basically just as stupid as the comments themselves.


In any case, it's not like Montreal is missing iconic looking bridges; I'm a pretty big fan of the Jacques Cartier Bridge.

Question though, from reading the article it says the new bridge is to replace the Champlain Bridge (another of my favourites). Are they intending to demolish the Champlain Bridge or convert it to some other use? I know Montreal has had issues in the recent past with deteriorating infrastructure; is the Champlain bridge in pretty bad shape? Just wondering because it would be a shame to lose that bridge (aesthetically speaking).

[Nouvellecosse]

The cantilever part that goes over the Seaway is nice, but the causeway part, that makes up the bulk of its length, is pretty forgettable.

[Nathan]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

The cantilever part that goes over the Seaway is nice, but the causeway part, that makes up the bulk of its length, is pretty forgettable.

Fair enough. For the record, I was talking about the cantilevered section...

[alps]

Very cool old pics of the Pierre Laporte Bridge.

Dartmouth end of the Mackay Bridge, opened the same year (1970):


(source)

Full view from Halifax side:


(source)

[KnoxfordGuy]

The Huge John Flemming Bridge in Hartland New Brunswick. Also the home of the worlds longest covered bridge, which is on the left side of the picture. I've always loved this bridge and wish more people knew about it.

picture from Panoramio. I did not take this picture.


A better picture of the covered bridge in Hartland:

picture from www.wondermondo.com I did not take this picture.


The hartland covered bridge before it was covered:

Picture from historicplaces.ca I didn't take this picture.