High Bridges on the Prairie in Canada?

Interesting question Tom.

I think they don't really exist, at least not the way they do in the US. Two things play into this, physical geography and the lack of track density in Canada. Many of Canada's major rivers are located well north of the "railroad zone". I'm not suggesting that the Canadian transcon was an easy build, but their mountains aren't as tall, and they were able to find routes that weren't as difficult.

IIRC, there is a very IMPRESSIVE bridge, near Lethbridge, Alberta. I don't know if it is on CN or CP trackage, but as I recall it was a Long and High Viaduct.

Doug

I have seen the bridge at Lethbridge, Alberta. It is pretty impressive. BNSF goes over a similar bridge in Valley City,ND. The Canadian Pacific parallels the river below. I have travelled the Fraser River route in Britsh Columbia and across to Banff, Alberta. There are some very unique bridges along the route (Stony Creek is my favorite) and the spiral tunnels. Both transcontinental routes overcame tremendous obstacles with innovative engineering. I have never been east of Lethbridge in Canada so I look forward to others input.

Bob

That is impressive!

Wikipedia

Lethbridge . . . that's exactly the kind of bridge I was wondering about.  Thanks, fellows.

 Oh my! all the rivers are north of the "railway zone", mountains not as tall and the Rogers Pass was not as difficult to build as.....hmmmm.

   From the Ontario border to the BC border there are numerous river valleys that the railways have to cross.

   In fact, One of the steepest grades is going east or west out of Medicine Hat. Approx 2.2% either way, out of the South Saskatchewan river valley. In steam days they ran pushers out of the Hat.

    Edmonton has a very impressive steel trestle that the CNR built going east, crossing the North Saskatchewan.

   The Lethbridge trestle replaced over 10 miles of winding track with numerous wooden trestles. There are many more bridges that come to mind, that are out of the way between Calgary/Edmonton on both railways.

    Into the Mountains, well the CNR had the easiest mainline crossing of any railway.

  The CPR on the other hand was ANYTHING but. An Operational nightmare from the beginning, with the choice to run the rails over Rogers Pass.

     I would suggest reading any of the books available on the building of the CPR. Monumental wooden trestles located at Stoney Creek, Mountain creek and the original line thru Rodgers Pass(Loops) are just to name a few. The building of the Kettle Valley Line(CPR's south mainline) was an engineering feat in itself.

   Kicking Horse Pass is around 5200 ft elevation with surrounding mountains at 10,000 ft.

Thanks, albertstrains.  Apparently, Canadian rail photographers did the same as their USA counterparts -- took photos mainly in the mountains, and in the east (where there are more people and where steam made its last stand).  The prairies of both nations were somewhat less frequented, and it's good to know that there are a few Canadians who "know where the bridges are."  

For anyone who has not seen it, see the spectactular IMAX movie Rocky Mountain Express when it is in your area.  It covers the hardship of building and maintaining the CPR route over the Rockies.

It is only currently showing in San Jose and Kansas City with no future dates listed.  I hope they do a second run; I'd like to see it again.

Bob

While I once drove across a two lane covered wooden automobile bridge in eastern Canada, that was high above a gorge, and gave me some trepidation, I must have missed the bridges while driving around the Banff/Lake Louise and Calgary areas of the Canadian Rockies.   Drove out on the Alberta prairie to photograph big red grain

elevators and remember no bridges there. 

However, when TCA had a convention in Des Moines several years ago, I drove out

west of the city into the covered bridge "Bridges of Madison County" area, that, at

the time, because of the movie, was attracting a lot of women visitors.  There was

reference to, and I visited an interesting railroad bridge across a gorge in what I considered an unlikely place on the generally flat Iowa prairie, so do not doubt there are others elsewhere.