CN Swing Bridge over Third Welland Canal

(Historic Bridges; Satellite)

R.S. Douglas posted
This is the bridge that crosses the 3rd Welland Canal. The canal hasn't been used since the 1930s, but the bridge, that was built in 1887, still sees daily use by passenger and freight trains. When the canal was in use, the bridge would swing open to allow ships to pass through the lock behind it.
[Historic Bridges]
R.S. Douglas also posted
R.S. Douglas also posted

Rene Ressler commented on the second post above by R.S. Douglas

Karen Limardi posted 12 photos with the comment: "The CN Railway swing bridge over the Third Welland Canal circa mid to late 1800's....around 1887. The span is a camelback warren through truss. Still an active track but no longer operational as a swing bridge . We hiked along the old Third Welland Canal this morning"

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

Barry Westhouse commented on Photo 7
The CN Grimsby Subdivision extends from N.F. to Bayview Junction at Hamilton near the R.B.G.

Bridge #15 over Welland Canal in Welland, ON

(Satellite)

Street View, May 2025

Bau Chinh, Apr 2022

Mike Jolin posted
Pic I took of bridge 15 (3rd and 4th Welland) canal at Welland. (I used a photo enhancing program to make it sepia) Bridge 13 was a railway bridge that was on the 3rd canal, built not long before work  started on the 4th; since the railways paid for their own bridges, they weren't going to replace it, just a few years after completion. Strangely, originally, the channel only flowed on one side and the bridge was landlocked when open until the canal was widened, for the 4th , when the other side was dug and the bridge sat on an island when opened.

Rob Sterne: I may be misunderstanding you here, but this bridge does not cross the 4th canal. The 4th canal is about 2 1/2 km to the east.

Mike Jolin: Well, technically, I suppose that it no longer crosses the 4th canal, but, for us Wellanders, the canal downtown is still the TRUE 4th canal, besides, I never mentioned the bypass, I was giving it's history before 1973.

Barry Westhouse commented on Mike's post
I have this bridge in my photo collection (July/2018) taken from Canal Bank Rd. - Prince Charles Dr. on the west side of the old canal can be seen as the bridge on the far end of this through-truss swing bridge.

I was going to skip this photo until I noticed how much the gusset plate and the top flange has rusted away. That strikes me as a little scary.

Giviner Onetime, May 2023

1927 Trillium Railway/CN (#17) Bridge over Welland Canal near Dain City, ON

(Historic Bridges; Satellite)

The 1973 bypass canal abandoned this route through Welland.

Street View, May 2025

Street View, Jun 2014

cmh2315fl Flickr

Welland Canal Bridge 17 - Dain City Railway Bridge (Welland, Ontario)

Historic Dain City Railway Bridge (Welland Canal Bridge 17) in Welland, Ontario, Canada. This section of the canal was bypassed by the Welland Canal Relocation Project (realignment around the city of Welland) in 1973.

The bridge is a Parker through truss vertical lift railroad bridge, although it no longer opens for water traffic. It was built ca. 1927 for the Canada Air-Line Railway (later the Canadian National Railway (CNR)) as part of the 4th Welland Canal expansion project (1913-1932). It is used today to serve local industries only.

Bill Martin posted
Bridge 17 Welland Canal

Jev's Photos commented on Bill's post

Postcard via brocku
"Dain City is a small suburb in southern Welland.  The area was named after the Marshall Dain Manufacturing Company (now John Deere) in the mid-1950s, the city's main employer at the time."
[This webpage has information on other bridges as well.]

CN Bridge over Anderson Creek at Fraser River near Boston Bar, BC

(Satellite)

Steven J. Brown posted

Twenty-three years ago today:

Rock Mountaineer Railtours on the Canadian National along the Fraser River at Boston Bar, British Columbia - July 22, 2002

Street View, Jul 2023

 Daniel Charbonneau Globe-Trotteur, May 2019

Frank Keller Photography posted
A CN intermodal train curves across the bridge at Boston Bar. In the background is the CP. During my visit in 6.89 each railroad ran trains on their own track. Today I understand they use CP for one direction and CN for the other. I would like to get back up to the Fraser River again someday. 

Clark Castle: CP was thru first so they got the grades. CN came later and had to settle for the less easy route. I have been thru here on the Canadian when CP was still running the service.

1910 CP Montrose Bridge over Welland River

(Satellite)

Street View, Jun 2023

R.S. Douglas posted five photos with the comment: "The Montrose swing bridge on the Welland River. It's the one that's visible from the QEW."

[ I got the above street view from the QEW.]

Peter Klevan: Four questions: Why the swing bridge at this location? Was there navigational traffic on the river at this point? I know the bridge is no longer operational but is the rail line still in use? Is the bridge similar in design to the one in nearby Welland?

Karen Limardi: Peter Klevan the first Welland Canal traversed this route from the Niagara River to Allanburg. I do not believe the rail line is still in use here. It's very similar to the swing bridge over the old Third Canal in back of GM in Thorold near the golf course.

Dougie Jay: Karen Limardi .. the rail line is still in use. The CP Montrose Yard (at the end of Drummond Road) is still active, the rail line goes to the Norton Plant in Chippawa. The former Michigan Central Line ends just south of Mount Carmel, that's where the trains go then switch onto the Chippawa line.

[Dougie provided several railfan photos of action on this line in the comments.]

1

2

3

4

5

Cathy Conlon commented on Douglas' post, cropped
Just went under it yesterday!

John Dahl posted seven photos with the comment: "Checking out the Montrose Swing Bridge, built in 1910 for the Canada Southern Railway and now only used occasionally by nearby industry. The last time it actually rotated was in the 1930s."

Bruce Maxwell: Way back in the Stand-By-Me days of my childhood, there was a missing railroad tie in the middle of the bridge that we squeezed between and dropped down through the bridge gears to the foundation, where we would sit for hours with our fishing lines in. One day, we popped back out through the hole and suddenly interrupted a photographer and his model, who was sitting on the edge of the bridge in nothing but a seethru bra and panties lingerie combo. He quickly wrapped his jacket around her and the two of them glared at all four of us as we made our way out of the hole and walked up the tracks. Memories!

Jarett Owen: The amount of times I’ve jumped off the top of this bridge is crazy. Easily 40ft drop. Just gotta make sure to jump far enough to the right since where the foundation is it’s only about 3ft deep 😄😄

1913 Saint-Laurent RR and 1934+1958+1963 Honoré (Honore) Mercier Bridges over St. Lawrence River at Kanahawake-Montreal, QC

Railroad: (Historic Bridges; Satellite)

Road: (Historic Bridges; Satellite)

There are two pairs of bridges.

First the pair over the South Shore Canal that ends at the St. Lambert Seaway Lock.

Obviously, the railroad bridge.

Street View, Nov 2020

Turning to my right, I see the road bridge.

Street View, Nov 2020

Viewing from the downstream side we get the railroad bridge in the background.

This is a Pennsylvania truss. [HistoricBridges_road]

Street View, Nov 2020

Then the pair over the river.

The railroad bridge.

Street View, Jun 2023

Southbound lanes. The northbound lanes are in the foreground, and the railroad bridge is in the background.

Street View, Jul 2016

The northbound lanes.

Street View, Sep 2024

There was a navigation channel on the south side of the river before the South Shore Canal was opened in 1958, thus all of the bridges have a through truss near the south bank.

Street View, Sep 2024

I could not get a good view of the lift bridge from the road bridge because a pedestrian fence was in the way. TI soon noticed that the fence was designed to discourage suicides.

Street View, Oct 2024

Richard Haydon posted
Train lift bridge at Kanahawake, Quebec. On the South Canal .

1932 construction of the Honoré Mercier Bridge

jacquescartierchamplain, Photo credit: BAnQ
"The bridge was opened to traffic on June 22, 1934, or 10 months before the scheduled completion date. It was originally 1361.25 m [4466'] long. Its main steel arch span was 121.87 m [400'] long, and it had 11 steel spans and 31 reinforced concrete spans."

This construction anticipated that a second bridge would be built across the river to provide 4 lanes of traffic.

jacquescartierchamplain
1958-59: "For the St. Lawrence Seaway construction project, the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation (SLSMC) started work to raise and extend the south section so that ships could pass underneath."

jacquescartierchamplain
1963: The second bridge was built downstream of the 1932 bridge. It is managed by the provincial government, whereas the 1932 bridge is a federal bridge.
"In the provincial bridge, the bridge engineers had to devise an innovative method to erect the bridge piers, given the thick layer of glacier marl over the rock, the river’s depth, and the speed of the current. Since the St. Lawrence River is so deep at this point, the engineers decided not to use cofferdams and instead chose pneumatic caissons, a method that had not been used in Montreal in 25 years."

Government management was changed on Oct 1, 1998.

jacquescartierchamplain

HistoricBridges_road
The original bridge before the Seaway was built.

HistoricBridges_road
Construction of the second navigation span.

"This impressive through truss bridge sits on the location of an earlier famous continuous truss bridge from 1887. The previous bridge was one of the earliest continuous truss bridges ever built. The bridge seen today contains two impressive through truss main spans, and a variety of deck truss spans, some of different span lengths. The bridge serves two tracks and was built as two parallel superstructures, with the second superstructure built in the same place as the previous single track bridge after its demolition, with traffic flowing over the first new superstructure while the second superstructure was built. Thus, railway traffic was not interrupted by construction." [HistoricBridges_rail]

HistoricBridges_rail
"Historical photo showing construction of the current bridge, with the previous bridge visible in the background."

HistoricBridges_rail
"Historical photo showing construction of the previous bridge."

HistoricBridges_rail
Historical photo showing previous bridge.
[So the railroad was the Canadian Pacific. The steamboat reminds me that this was the navigation channel until the Seaway was built.]