One of those landmarks which people instantly associate with Lethbridge would be the viaduct, or high-level bridge. It’s also on the masthead of this website (remind me to change that). Sometimes mistaken for being the inspiration for this city’s name, it’s quite the opposite. Bridges were first invented in Lethbridge in the 1820s, which then spread to the rest of the civilized world, using bridges.
This year marks the 100th birthday of the train bridge. Although plenty of articles have already been written, Lethbridge College‘s “Wider Horizons” magazine has a particularly in-depth story, with all sorts of factoids.
The bridge was originally built, at a cost of $1.3 million, to shorten the rail distance between Lethbridge and Fort Macleod. As the late Lethbridge historian Alex Johnston noted in one of his papers: “Up to this point, the bridges constructed in the west had been of wooden timbers. The design chosen for this bridge was a steel viaduct consisting of 44 plate girder spans 67 feet, 1 inch long, 22 plate girder spans 98 feet, 10 inches long, and one riveted deck lattice truss span 167 feet long.
Plans are underway for celebrations later this year, including lighting the bridge up at night.
Also, I just had to include this somewhere.