Industrial History: CN and CP Bridges over Fraser River south of Lytton, BC

Sunday, July 24, 2022

CN and CP Bridges over Fraser River south of Lytton, BC

CN Pedestrian: (Satellite)

The CN bridge is the deck arch and the CP bridge is the through truss.

Steven J. Brown posted
Canadian Pacific coal eastbound across the Fraser River at Cisco, British Columbia - July 21, 2002.

Not only the water turbulence, but the water level on the piers shows that the river was much higher in this photo than in Steven's photo.

Canyon Overland, Jul 2020

There are so many photos with the same view because there is an access road and Viewpoint for the bridges.

Michael Markl, Jun 2023

Satellite

When I looked at Lytton on a map, I recognized that as the location of some severe flood damage in Nov 2021. I see today (Jul 24, 2022) that a wildfire alert is marked on the map.

Road Map

Cisco Bridges has many more photos and the following description:

The Cisco Bridges are a pair of railroad bridges at Siska (historically known as Cisco) near Lytton, British Columbia, Canada. The Canadian Pacific Railway and Canadian National Railway both follow the route of the Fraser River, one on each side, and the routes exchange sides at this point. The easier CPR route was laid first; when the CNR arrived later they needed to follow the more difficult route. The area is popular with railfans due to the proximity of the two bridges (which allows both bridges to be taken in one photograph, sometimes with a CPR and CNR train on each bridge simultaneously), and the easy access to the area (the Trans-Canada Highway (BC Hwy 1)) is parallel to both bridges down the east bank of the river. Directional running in the Fraser Canyon means that both CPR and CNR trains may be seen on both bridges.
Canadian National Railway
The Canadian National bridge is a truss arch bridge, long and high. The north-west end of the bridge abuts into a near-vertical rock face. The south-east end of the bridge crosses the CPR tracks about north of the CPR bridge.
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific bridge is a 3-span, -long truss bridge. There are two short Pratt truss spans at each end of the longer Parker truss main span. The south end of the bridge (on the west bank of the river) enters directly into the Cantilever Bar Tunnel, in the side of the Cisco Bluff.

Guess Guesser, Nov 2021

Here we can see that the arch ribs are inclined towards the center.

Guess Guesser, Nov 2021

We can see a snow shed between the bridge and the Cantilever Bar Tunnel

Jonathan H, Sep 2021

I highlighted the tunnel in yellow.

Satellite plus Paint

The snow shed has yet to be built.

Samuel J. Jarvis, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

0:30 video by BXCRGNR
CN & CP freight trains cross one another at the spectacular Cisco Bridges near Lytton. This was my first time visiting the Fraser Canyon and I was absolutely spellbound by the scenery and engineering marvels of both railways.

This fire on the CN bridge was in 2011.

I Love Trains posted
Creosote railroad ties and sparks are never a good combination.
Click link to see video https://trainfanatics.com/cnr-cisco-bridge-fire/
[Or just go to YouTube.]
"Amazingly enough, by using pre-assembled sections of track and ties, CNR was able to get the repairs done quickly and the bridge was back in service in only 3 days!"

The drone video of the fire provides some new views of the CN bridge.

10:53 video @ 0:44

@ 6:19

I presume that is a Canadian Pacific truss.

@ 9:44

The yellow bucket is hanging from a helicopter.

5:34 video @ 2:15

Look at the big kinks in the rail. Kinks will form in the summer because they rails expand when they get hot. When they get really hot because of a fire, the kinks become big.

@ 4:45

cbc (Joelle Harvey)
"Railway ties were on fire on the entire stretch of a CN Rail bridge south of Lytton, B.C., Thursday."

I discovered the "Pedestrian Bridge while looking for the CN Cisco Bridge. I wonder if they added the cage because of suicides or bungee jumpers or an abundance of caution.