Honoré Mercier Bridge

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Honoré Mercier Bridge
Underneath the Mercier Bridge in Kahnawake.
Carries	4 lanes of Quebec Highway 138
Crosses	St. Lawrence River
Locale	Kahnawake, Quebec and Montreal, Quebec

The Honoré Mercier Bridge in Quebec connects the Montreal borough of LaSalle on the Island of Montreal with the Mohawk reserve of Kahnawake on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River. It carries Route 138, originally Route 4. It is 1,361 m in length and contains four steel trusses on its first section. The height of the bridge varies from 12.44 m to 33.38 m (40ft 10in - 109ft 6in) with the highest sections located over the St Lawrence Seaway. The bridge is named after former premier of Quebec Honoré Mercier.

Construction of the bridge began in November 1932 and was completed in the early summer of 1934. It was opened to traffic on June 22, 1934, 10 months ahead of schedule with a toll of 50¢ for an automobile and driver. Today there is no toll charged for crossing the bridge.

The original east approach was on Lafleur Avenue, which ran straight into the Gauron Bridge over the Lachine Canal.

The bridge has two lanes of traffic in each direction and a total span of nearly two kilometres. At its highest point, the bridge rises 36 metres above the river.

There is a narrow sidewalk on the side headed to Chateauguay that can be crossed by foot or bicycle by the extremely adventurous.

Before the bridge was built there was a ferry service.

The higher section over the Saint Laurence Seaway was added in the late 1950s.

The Mercier was built by the Dominion Bridge Company Ltd under a government-funded work program. It was designed by 11 French-Canadian engineers who were all graduates of the École Polytechnique de Montréal.

In August 1963, the Quebec Department of Public works sanctioned the construction of a "second" bridge downstream from the first. This increased the number of lanes from two to four.

An estimated 28 million vehicles use the bridge every year.

1 Mohawks in Support of the Caledonia Group
2 Maintenance
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Mohawks in Support of the Caledonia Group

During the Caledonia Protest, certain individuals from Kahnawake erected Warrior flags on the steel trusses of the bridge to show their support.
Several weeks later one of the Warrior flags was removed from the bridge and replaced with a Quebec flag. If you look closely, the red Warrior flag is barely visible in the above picture between the first 'V' section of the truss.

The Mohawks of Kahnawake did, with the permission of the government, block one lane in one direction for a short period to show their support for their Caledonian relatives.