In the mid-19th century, Montreal's
location would have lost some of its importance if it
had not had a permanent, year-round rail link with the
Eastern Seaboard. The Grand Trunk, a British company
formed with the support of the Canadian government to
connect the Great Lakes with the Atlantic, would achieve
the great feat of building the first bridge, a railway
one, over the St. Lawrence River.
The Victoria Bridge, built between
1854 and 1859 and inaugurated by the Prince of Wales
in 1860, was the crucial piece in the "longest
railway in the world owned by a single company,"
as the shareholders of the time boasted (the other systems
consisted of small, independent railways). No less than
three miles long, the bridge included 24 ice-breaking
piers, for the designers rightly feared damage from
ice, which would in fact delay construction work during
the first years. The deck was a long structural metal
tube made of prefabricated sections (from England) and
designed by Robert Stephenson, son of the builder of
the famed Rocket locomotive.
In 1897-1898, the metal tube from 1860
was replaced by metal trusses, common at the time. To
minimize traffic disruptions, the trusses were assembled
around the tube, while the tube continued to carry train
traffic. The tube was then demolished.
The stone piers from 1860, slightly
altered in 1897, still testify to the excellent original
engineering. The Victoria Bridge is a key historic structure,
one still used by the Canadianand North
Americanrail systems, and remains a major contributor
to Montreal's role as a continental hub.