By Nancy Miller Chenier
The heritage value of the Alexandra Bridge is undisputed. Originally called the Interprovincial Bridge, it has been standing as a widely acknowledged landmark in our nation’s capital for more than a century. The name “Alexandra” emerged after the bridge featured prominently in the visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York in September 1900. As the Historic Bridges website states: “Located next to Parliament Hill, this beautiful bridge represents a significant engineering achievement as an early surviving large-scale cantilever truss bridge.”
Constructed between 1898 and 1900 to link Ontario and Québec across the Ottawa River, this bridge has been an important part of Lowertown’s history. Public and private pressure for a bridge in this location was evident from early 1880.
In 1890 the Ottawa Interprovincial Bridge Company was established to undertake the goal of building a bridge to carry railway, carriage, and foot traffic. The resulting iconic bridge became the primary connection for Lowertowners to visit families, friends, businesses, and employers in Québec.
The plaque on the Ottawa end of the bridge identifies H.J. Beemer as the contractor and Guy C. Dunn as the chief engineer. Horace J. Beemer had been the contractor on the 1879 Prince of Wales railway bridge (now known as the Chief William Commanda Bridge) just up the river and Guy Dunn was put in charge of the bridge construction. They began work on the six concrete piers in the Ottawa River in early 1898, employing a new method that involved pouring concrete to set in the deep water. The work was complicated by the layers of sawdust accumulated on the riverbed over years of logging, but later testing proved that the piers were sound.
The bridge’s steel structure, built by the Dominion Bridge Company, was completely in place by 1900 allowing the first locomotive to roll. This company was a major manufacturer of steel bridge components and the extensive work on this bridge was a key factor in the company opening an Ottawa branch. The company’s Lowertown legacy lives on in this bridge as well as in the heritage designated Porter’s Island Bridge (1894) and the Minto Bridges (1900-1902).
The Alexandra Bridge survived the 1950s Greber Plan recommendation to remove the railway lines to the downtown Union Station and to eliminate the interprovincial bridge in favour of a more architectural structure to the east, “of a type eliminating the objectionable steel trusses of the existing bridge.” Greber saw this interprovincial bridge as one part of a “utilitarian project executed without consideration for the natural beauty of the site.”
Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) is the federal government’s manager of the 120-year-old bridge and its current proposal to demolish it acknowledges that it is significant as a unique heritage, aesthetic, and engineering landmark. Nonetheless, the department recommends celebrating its past history and built heritage through the development of a suitable replacement design. With the help of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, it has enlisted a group to recommend the preferred new bridge design for consideration by the National Capital Commission (NCC).
Heritage advocates in Lowertown and elsewhere see the Alexandra Bridge, not only as an important physical route between two provinces but also as an architectural symbol of national connection created by our country’s civil engineers. Indeed, it was designated as a National Historic Civil Engineering site in 1995. Advocates propose that the bridge be retained and repurposed for green infrastructure transportation. In addition to its significant cultural heritage value, they see its retention as a contribution to climate action – retention as an act that reduces waste, energy use, and carbon emissions. The federal department needs reminding that the greenest bridge is the one still standing.