The Peace Bridge is an international

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

between

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

at the east end of

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has t ...

at the source of the

Niagara River The Niagara River () is a river that flows north from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. It forms part of the border between the province of Ontario in Canada (on the west) and the state of New York in the United States (on the east). There are diffe ...

, about upriver of

Niagara Falls Niagara Falls () is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States. The largest of the three is Horseshoe Fall ...

. It connects

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

, in the United States to

Fort Erie, Ontario Fort Erie is a town on the Niagara River in the Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada. It is directly across the river from Buffalo, New York, and is the site of Old Fort Erie which played a prominent role in the War of 1812. Fort Erie is one of ...

, in Canada. It is operated and maintained by the binational Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority. The Peace Bridge consists of five arched spans over the Niagara River and a Parker deck type truss span over the Black Rock Canal on the American side of the river. The length is . Material used in the construction included of steelwork, 9,000 tons of structural steel and 800 tons of reinforcing steel in the concrete abutments. The Peace Bridge was named to commemorate 100 years of peace between the United States and Canada. It was constructed as a highway bridge to address pedestrian and motor vehicle traffic which could not be accommodated on the International Railway Bridge, built in 1873.

History

The building of the Peace Bridge was approved by the

International Joint Commission The International Joint Commission (french: Commission mixte internationale) is a bi-national organization established by the governments of the United States and Canada under the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909. Its responsibilities were expa ...

on August 6, 1925. Edward Lupfer served as chief engineer. A major obstacle to building the bridge was the swift river current, which averages . Construction began in 1925 and was completed in the spring of 1927. On March 13, 1927, Lupfer drove the first car across the bridge. On June 1, 1927, the bridge was opened to the public. The official opening ceremony was held two months later, on August 7, 1927, with about 100,000 in attendance. The festivities were transmitted to the public via

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transm ...

in the first international coast-to-coast broadcast. Newspapers at the time estimated that as many as 50 million listeners may have heard the broadcast. The dignitaries who took part in the dedication ceremonies included The Prince of Wales (the future Edward VIII),

Prince George Prince George may refer to: People British princes * George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence (1449-1478), middle brother of Edward IV and Richard III. * Prince George Augustus, later George II of Great Britain (1683–1760) * Prince George Will ...

, Canadian Prime Minister

William Lyon Mackenzie King William Lyon Mackenzie King (December 17, 1874 – July 22, 1950) was a Canadian statesman and politician who served as the tenth prime minister of Canada for three non-consecutive terms from 1921 to 1926, 1926 to 1930, and 1935 to 1948. A L ...

, British Prime Minister

Stanley Baldwin Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, (3 August 186714 December 1947) was a British Conservative Party politician who dominated the government of the United Kingdom between the world wars, serving as Prime Minister of the United Kingd ...

, U.S. Vice President

Charles Dawes Charles Gates Dawes (August 27, 1865 – April 23, 1951) was an American banker, general, diplomat, composer, and Republican politician who was the 30th vice president of the United States from 1925 to 1929 under Calvin Coolidge. He was a co-re ...

, Secretary of State Frank Kellogg, New York Governor

Al Smith Alfred Emanuel Smith (December 30, 1873 – October 4, 1944) was an American politician who served four terms as Governor of New York and was the Democratic Party's candidate for president in 1928. The son of an Irish-American mother and a ...

and Ontario Premier Howard Ferguson. When the bridge opened, Buffalo and Fort Erie each became the chief port of entry to their respective countries from the other. At the time it was the only vehicular bridge on the Great Lakes from Niagara Falls to New York. The bridge remains one of North America's important commercial ports with four thousand trucks crossing it daily. After new toll facilities were installed on the Canadian side in 2005, the Peace Bridge became the first

E-ZPass E-ZPass is an electronic toll collection system used on toll roads, toll bridges, and toll tunnels in the Eastern United States, Midwestern United States, and Southern United States. The E-ZPass Interagency Group (IAG) consists of member agenci ...

facility outside the United States. There are no fees for entering the US.

Alternatives

The Peace Bridge is one of the busiest on the

Canada–United States border The border between Canada and the United States is the longest international border in the world. The terrestrial boundary (including boundaries in the Great Lakes, Atlantic, and Pacific coasts) is long. The land border has two sections: Can ...

, with over one million trucks crossing it each year and delays of up to almost four hours. Other nearby bridges between the United States and Canada include the Rainbow Bridge, the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge and the

Whirlpool Rapids Bridge The Whirlpool Rapids Bridge, commonly known as the Whirlpool Bridge or the Lower Steel Arch Bridge (before 1937), is a spandrel braced, riveted, two-hinged arch bridge that crosses the international border between Canada and the United States, co ...

. The Queenston-Lewiston Bridge and the Peace Bridge are the only Niagara River crossings that allow heavy trucks.

Customs inspection and toll plazas

There are customs plazas at both ends of the bridge, with the Canadian plaza the newer and larger of the two. The inbound customs plaza in the United States has seven lanes for trucks and nine for cars. Pedestrians and cyclists are processed to the left of the truck inspection area. The inbound customs plaza in Canada was designed by NORR Limited Architects and Engineers and completed in 2010. There are 14 booths/lanes for cars and a separate area for trucks (handling five trucks at a time). Pedestrians and cyclists are processed in an area on the right side of the inspection area for cars. Once vehicles leave the customs plaza in Canada, vehicles approach a smaller toll plaza to pay toll for using the Peace Bridge. Payment for tolls are accepted in cash ($8.00 USD or $10.25 CAD),

($4.00 USD), or old Peace Bridge tokens. There are no toll booths when entering the U.S. and no tolls for pedestrians or cyclists.

Preclearance

In October 2012, it was announced by the DHS and Public Safety Canada that a pilot program, years in the works, to preclear all truck traffic from Canada into Buffalo would be commenced. The pilot would start in late December 2012 and run for 18 months, after which the economic benefits would be assessed and its feasibility to make permanent would then be recommended to both U.S Congress and the Parliament of Canada.

Road connections

On the New York side, Interstate 190 has a direct northbound off-ramp (exit 9) onto the Peace Bridge. On the Ontario side, the

Queen Elizabeth Way The Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) is a 400-series highways, 400-series highway in the Canadian province of Ontario linking Toronto with the Niagara Peninsula and Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, New York (state), New York. The Controlled-access highway ...

begins at the Canadian Customs plaza.

Commemorations

* Buffalo resident Emma M. Herold-Haft composed the ''Peace Bridge March'' in honor of the bridge's opening in 1927. * On August 4, 1977,

Canada Post Canada Post Corporation (french: Société canadienne des postes), trading as Canada Post (french: Postes Canada), is a Crown corporations of Canada, Crown corporation that functions as the primary Postal administration, postal operator in Canada ...

and the

United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the executive branch of the Federal government of the Uni ...

brought out a

joint issue A joint issue is the release of stamps or postal stationery by two or more countries to commemorate the same topic, event or person. Joint issues typically have the same first day of issue and their design is often similar or identical, except for ...

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the ...

s to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the bridge. Unusual for joint issues, the two designs are radically different, with the US print being all blue and the Canadian print in full colour).

References

External links

Peace Bridge Authority
*
Images from the Historic Niagara Digital Collections
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, bridge = Peace Bridge , bridge signs = Ontario QEW

, upstream =

, upstream signs = , downstream = International Railway Bridge , downstream signs = 1927 establishments in Canada 1927 establishments in New York (state) Canada–United States border crossings Bridges completed in 1927 Bridges in Buffalo, New York Bridges over the Niagara River Buildings and structures in Buffalo, New York Canada–United States bridges Open-spandrel deck arch bridges in Canada Open-spandrel deck arch bridges in the United States Parker truss bridges in the United States Pratt truss bridges Road bridges in New York (state) Road bridges in Ontario Roads with a reversible lane Steel bridges in Canada Steel bridges in the United States Toll bridges in Canada Toll bridges in New York (state) Transport in Fort Erie, Ontario Transportation buildings and structures in Erie County, New York Truss arch bridges in Canada Truss arch bridges in the United States Peace symbols