PHOTOS COURTESY ESPLANADE ARCHIVES
The First CPR bridge in Medicine Hat, pictured on June 10, 1883
Spanning the South Saskatchewan River, the Canadian Pacific Railway bridge is a local historical landmark.
But it is not our first railway bridge.
The CPR bridge has been built not once, but three times. Each time, challenges had to be overcome and danger was always present.
In 1883, the rush was on to lay the tracks westward and a river was in the way. The first railway bridge was a temporary, timber trestle bridge completed rapidly in early 1883.
As there was no town and no facilities while the track was being laid and the bridge constructed, railroaders and the merchants who followed the rails lived in tent settlements.
The first train to cross the timber trestle bridge was on June 10, 1883. However, this temporary bridge was short-lived.
A steel truss bridge situated on stone piers soon replaced it. This single-track bridge had a unique feature.
The South-end of the bridge swung open to allow steamboats to pass. The steamboat era did not last long as it proved to be unprofitable. The swinging bridge section had not been used for 10 years when on February 2, 1899, a catastrophic train wreck on the bridge killed three CPR employees, destroyed the train engine and damaged the bridge.
After the accident, the section built for the steamboats had swung open and as most Hatters had never seen it before, the curious showed up to see how it worked.
By 1912, Medicine Hat had become a city with multiple industries, a downtown core filled with hotels, restaurants, shops and services and neighbourhoods with affluent residences. The original train station, once located on South Railway Street, had been replaced by today’s CPR station on North Railway Street. A single-track bridge was no longer efficient to keep up with the growth.
In 1913, a double-track bridge was constructed. The new bridge, the one we know today, is a combination steel truss bridge and plate girder bridge. An enormous amount of labour was required to build it.
A concrete mixer operated by a steam engine was situated at the south end of the bridge.
Workers fed cement and gravel into the mixer while another steam-operated machine conveyed the wet concrete into trucks that dumped the concrete out over the piers. Some stone piers from the previous bridge were retained (portions can be seen today).
Two work gangs were situated at either end of the bridge. A large, heavy crane was engaged for the steel work. A News reporter described the event as exciting as watching the construction of a “twenty-six storey skyscraper.”
Construction was still on-going in February 1913. Work gangs were labouring from the ice below.
Despite the chilly weather, Hatters followed the progress with extreme interest. To finish the final train bridge, workers had to persevere through winter weather.
Sally Sehn is a past member of the Heritage Resources Committee, City of Medicine Hat.
