Pont de Québec

The bridge of Quebec is a mixed bridge - railway and truck driver - Québécois which crosses the Fleuve the St. Lawrence of the west of the Ville of Quebec (northern bank) until Lévis (southern bank). It is a riveted structure of steel-boot of which here dimensions:

length: 987 m
width: 28.7 m
height: 104 m

Each scale cantilever is of 178 Mr. the bridge of Quebec is the property of the railway company Canadian National (CN).

It is the Pont of the type Cantilever having the longest free range in the world, with 549 meters between its principal pillars and its 576 meters long central span. He is still regarded today as a major work of engineering.

History

Need for a bridge and its installation

Before the construction of the bridge of Quebec, the only way of crossing Quebec in Lévis and vice versa a cross was to take. The winter, a bridge of ice made it possible to join two banks. Towards the Années 1890, it became obvious that a railway bridge was necessary.

The Pont was built by the Quebec Bridge and Railway Company , of federal property since belonging to the National Transcontinental Railway . Construction was entrusted to the Phoenix Company Bridge of Pennsylvania and began in 1903 under the direction from the American engineer Theodore Copper after the federal government had allocated the required funds at the beginning of work. The bridge was designed to be 26.5 meters wide, and to comprise 2 railways, 2 ways of Tramway and two ways for the motor vehicle traffic.

The selected place constitutes the narrowest point of the river between Quebec and Montreal, where the river has an average depth of 45 meters, without counting a fault reaching 58 meters. The local public opinion as of journeaux the such The Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph of Quebec in 1897 would have preferred to have a pedestrian, road and railway bridge more close to the center town of each bank in order to encourage the local exchanges. The cost additional of a broader bridge and the selected only railway vocation made carry the choice of the site to the current site.

About 1904, the structure took form gradually. However, because of miscalculations made during the phase of planning of the bridge, the actual weight of the bridge exceeded of much its bearing capacity. When the bridge was almost finished, certain structural problems were noticed by the local team engineers, but nobody took account of the gravity of the situation at the time. Work continued in spite of the fact that a responsible engineer ordered the complete stop of work on August 27th, 1907.

The collapse of August 29th, 1907

August 29th, 1907 with 17:37, after four years of construction, the southern part of the bridge crumbles in the St-Laurent river in hardly 15 seconds, and hardly 20 minutes before the end of day's work. Out of the 100 workers who were there, 76 were killed, and the others were wounded. 33 of the victims were workers Mohawks reserve of Kahnawake, who were buried in Kahnawake under made crosses of steel beams. Seventeen other victims were originating in the the United States, and twenty-six were Inhabitants of Quebec as a majority of Saint-Romuald or New Liverpool, maintaining districts of Lévis. The oral tradition of Huron-Wendat of Wendake also gives a report on six or seven victims coming from their row. Since the Years 2000, one can see parts of scrap coming from this collapse with low tide on bank of the river. Indeed, although the company Charles Koenig of Quebec carried out at the time cleaning of all the parts which were visible, the current low tides reach a level lower than those of the beginning of the Années 1900.

A monument dedicated to the victims, built him also starting from the metal of the broken down bridge, was set up in the cemetery of Saint-Romuald by the historical Company of Saint-Romuald.

The collapse of September 11th, 1916

After a royal commission of enquiry into the disaster of 1907, the construction of a second bridge following the same design started, this time with Ralph Modjeski as chief engineer. Misfortune struck on September 11th, 1916 again when the prefabricated central part was being high in place between the two rebuilt sections. Collapse killed thirteen people. The span always rests at the bottom of the river.

Finishing of the bridge

Construction was finally completed in August 1917, with the total costs of 25 million dollars. St Lawrence Bridge Company, which carried out work, counted within its employees, the German engineer Joachim von Ribbentrop, future Foreign Minister of Adolf Hitler under the Third Reich. December 3rd, 1917, the bridge of Quebec was opened with the rail traffic after having been in construction lasting almost two decades.

August 22nd, 1919, it is inaugurated officially by the Prince Edouard of Wales.

The bridge of Quebec as from the years 1920

The bridge was designed and built mainly to be used as railway bridge, but the ways of Tramway and one of two railway ways were transformed into ways for the car and pedestrian and cycle way during the subsequent years. The first cars could cross the bridge on September 22nd, 1929 on a 4.27 meters broad way. This width not being sufficient however so that heavy vehicles like trucks or buses can meet on the bridge; guards communicating by telephone were to stop circulation at an end of the bridge when a heavy vehicle engaged starting from other bank. Speed on the bridge was then limited to 15 [[Thousand (unit) miles]] per hour, that is to say approximately 24 kilometers/hour.

Until April 1st, 1942, the vehicles were to carry out a toll to cross the bridge (50 [[hundred (currency) ¢]] by vehicle and 10 ¢ by passenger, free for the pedestrians). The building of the tax collectors is always upright, on the ground of the Park-aquarium of Quebec.

Consequences

In Canada and in several other countries, the continuations of the collapse of the bridge of Quebec showed the dangers of the absolute authority of a Engineer on a project, leading several to consider the framing of this authority. The engineers preceded a possible governmental intervention by creating multiples and independent associations by engineers.

Possibly, these groups gathered in their respective fields and created professional orders the such Order of the Engineers of Quebec (OIQ) whose main role is the protection of the public initially, and the safeguarding of the credibility of the engineers then. The general requirements of this type of professional order include a code of Déontologie, a standardization of the formation and a system of mentorat with certified engineers.

Today

The bridge was declared international Historic building on May 23rd, 1987 by the Companies Canadian and American of the civil engineers (CSCE and ACSE), and was the fourth civil engineer work to receive this honor. January 24th, 1996, the bridge was included in the list of the national historical Lieux of Canada.

The bridge is always the property of the railway conveyer Canadian National (CN). It however receives funds of the governments federal and provincial for repairs and the maintenance of the structure. Since the Years 1990, a controversy is in hand on the division of the maintenance costs of the bridge between CN, the Gouvernement of Canada and the Gouvernement of Quebec; one estimates at 140 million Canadian dollars the total invoice of the repair of the bridge.

Anecdotes

the second longer bridge of the type Cantilever is Forth Bridge which crosses the " Firth off Forth" in Scotland, completed in 1890. Its two structures of support have each one 27 m less than those of the bridge of Quebec.
According to a urban Legend, a bolt of gold was fixed some share on the structure of the bridge during its construction. Many research, as well physical as documentary, was carried out during the years, without however proving its existence.
According to another Legend, the devil, in the shape of a mysterious person, would have concluded a pact with the foreman responsible for construction: in exchange of the heart of the first living being to cross the bridge, the devil would make so that the bridge does not fall any more. The foreman, without reflecting too much, would have accepted the pact. During the inauguration, the foreman, remembering the oath, launched a cat on the bridge which crossed it to be run away. In the middle of the bridge, the animal disappeared. The devil had to be satisfied with the heart of the animal, the foreman being played of him.
During the years following its construction, it was currency for people living near the bridge of Quebec to go for there a Sunday walk on more the high summits of its structure, such a practice at the time being tolerated.
In 1970, the Pont Pierre-Laporte was open just upstream bridge of Quebec, to allow the passage of the highway traffic of the Autoroute 73.
Under the two bridges, the current of the Fleuve the St. Lawrence is reversed twice a day when the tide is rising since it is with the sea level, although the salt water and the sea are with more than 100 km.
a persistent rumor implies that pieces of the ploughed up bridge would have been used for with the passing of years to forge the Bagues steel given to the students future engineers at the time of the ceremony of assermentation of the seven guards about the Engineers of Quebec (OIQ). These rings, related to the Auricular of the hand of work of the professional engineers, are intended to remind the engineers their social responsibilities to respect the ethics of their profession. The steel ring is with the rough departure, it is with time that it is made polish by work, representing the experiment which comes with the age.

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