The Chaudière Bridge (French: ''Pont de la Chaudière'') crosses the

Ottawa River The Ottawa River (french: Rivière des Outaouais, Algonquin: ''Kichi-Sìbì/Kitchissippi'') is a river in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. It is named after the Algonquin word 'to trade', as it was the major trade route of Eastern ...

about west of

Parliament Hill Parliament Hill (french: Colline du Parlement, colloquially known as The Hill, is an area of Crown land on the southern banks of the Ottawa River in downtown Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Its Gothic revival suite of buildings, and their archit ...

, joining the communities of

Gatineau Gatineau ( ; ) is a city in western Quebec, Canada. It is located on the northern bank of the Ottawa River, immediately across from Ottawa, Ontario. Gatineau is the largest city in the Outaouais administrative region and is part of Canada's N ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...

and

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, linking Rue Eddy in the Hull sector of Gatineau and Booth Street in Ottawa. The bridge is one portion of multiple spans constituting the Chaudière Crossing, which still contain portions of the first bridge linking Ottawa with Hull dating back to the time of

Colonel By Lieutenant-Colonel John By (7 August 1779 – 1 February 1836) was an English military engineer. He is best known for having supervised the construction of the Rideau Canal and for having founded Bytown in the process. It developed and was desi ...

in the 1820s. The bridge passes through the

E.B. Eddy Company The E. B. Eddy Company was a Canadian pulp and paper company, now a division of Domtar Inc. At the time of the purchase, the company had facilities in Hull, Quebec, Timmins, Ontario, Espanola, Ontario, Chapleau, Ontario, Pembroke, Ontario, Sault ...

complex adjacent to the

Chaudière Falls , image = Ottawa Chaudiere Falls.jpg , image_size = 300px , caption = Chaudière Falls in June 2006, at summer water levels , map_image = , map_size = , coordinates = , coords_ref = , location ...

, from which the bridge gets its name.

Union Bridge

The Chaudière Bridge's earliest predecessor, the 8 span "Union Bridge" was completed under

's direction in September 1828; the first bridge to link the two young towns. (Its first span, completed January 11, 1827, had been their second attempt at that site, for the first one had collapsed the previous November.) While the main span was a wooden

arch An arch is a vertical curved structure that spans an elevated space and may or may not support the weight above it, or in case of a horizontal arch like an arch dam, the hydrostatic pressure against it. Arches may be synonymous with vau ...

masonry Masonry is the building of structures from individual units, which are often laid in and bound together by mortar; the term ''masonry'' can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are bricks, building ...

arches were also used for the smaller spans.

Thomas McKay Thomas McKay (1 September 1792 – 9 October 1855) was a Canadian businessman who was one of the founders of the city of Ottawa, Ontario. Biography McKay was born in Perth, Scotland and became a skilled stonemason. He emigrated to the C ...

had been given contracts to construct two of its stone arches.. One of Thomas Burrowes' first assignments during the construction of the

Rideau Canal The Rideau Canal, also known unofficially as the Rideau Waterway, connects Canada's capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, to Lake Ontario and the Saint Lawrence River at Kingston. It is 202 kilometres long. The name ''Rideau'', French for "curtain", ...

was to help plan and construct the Union Bridge. The bridge had been needed during the construction of the

because Colonel By's initial base of operations was initially in Wright's Town (Hull). The bridge received its name to "symbolize the joining of the Provinces of Upper Canada and Lower Canada". The

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of ligni ...

truss bridge A truss bridge is a bridge whose load-bearing superstructure is composed of a truss, a structure of connected elements, usually forming triangular units. The connected elements (typically straight) may be stressed from tension, compression, or ...

which spanned the

collapsed on May 18, 1836. A ferry service was temporarily used until a new bridge was opened in 1843. Over the years, the main span had to be replaced several times, however much of the original (1827–1828) spans remained in place. The changes that follow refer mostly to the replacement of the main span. The Union Suspension Bridge, opened on September 17, 1843 (possibly September 17, 1844), was a

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in ...

bridge built by Alexander Christie, and designed by Samuel Keefer until 1889 when it was again rebuilt using steel

truss A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure. In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so that the assembla ...

construction. The current steel bridge was built by the

Dominion Bridge Company Dominion Bridge Company Limited was a Canadian steel bridge constructor originally based in Lachine, Quebec. From the core business of steel bridge component fabrication, the company diversified into related areas such as the fabrication of hold ...

in 1919.

Deteriorated condition

Several of the masonry arches dating from 1828 are still in use, just to the north of the current steel bridge. On December 3, 2008,

Public Works and Government Services Canada Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC; french: Services publics et Approvisionnement Canada)''Public Services and Procurement Canada'' is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of Public Works ...

closed the bridge for vehicular and pedestrian traffic after an inspection revealed deterioration in the masonry arches. It was closed immediately in both directions "until further notice." The closure affected commuting across the Ottawa River, including

OC Transpo OC Transpo, officially the Ottawa-Carleton Regional Transit Commission, is the public transit agency for the city of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It operates an integrated hub-and-spoke system including light metro, bus rapid transit, conventional ...

bus routes 8, 88, and 105 which run across the bridge and stop in front of the government offices at

Terrasses de la Chaudière Les Terrasses de la Chaudière is a complex of government office buildings in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. The complex was built in 1978 as part of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's initiative to see more federal workers based in the Quebec side of ...

. The bridge was partially re-opened one week later with weight restrictions and a reduced speed limit. The bridge work went under review by the federal government and a decision to repair the bridge spans was made. Consultants used computer-simulations to model the stress and the condition of the arches. Ottawa historian John Taylor had proposed that the government use the opportunity to open up the area to views of the Falls. In May 2009 the bridge was reopened after repairs to the concrete spans.

2019 flood closure

In late April 2019, authorities announced that the bridge would be closed due to concerns over rising water level caused by the 2019 flood.

Gallery

References

External links