High Level Bridge (Edmonton)

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For other uses, see High Level Bridge (disambiguation).

High Level Bridge
Sourdough Raft Race, passing beneath the High Level Bridge's Great Divide waterfall with the LRT bridge in the background
Carries	109th St. Southbound
Crosses	North Saskatchewan River
Locale	Canada municipality of Edmonton
Design	Phillips B. Motley, CPR
Longest span	777 m (2,550 feet)
Total length	877 m (2,877 feet)
Width	2 vehicular lanes, one-way
Opening date	June 2, 1913
Destruction date	N/A
Maps and aerial photos

The High Level Bridge, opened in 1913, spans the North Saskatchewan River in Edmonton, Alberta. Located next to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, the bridge linked the then-separate communities of Edmonton and Strathcona. It was designed from the outset to accommodate rail, streetcar, automobile and pedestrian traffic. The Canadian Pacific Railway, responsible for the design of the bridge, ceased rail operations over the span in 1989. In summer months, members of the public can ride the High Level Streetcar over the top deck. The bridge was designated a Municipal Historic Resource in 1995^[1].

High Level Bridge Waterfall

In 1980, the "Great Divide Waterfall," by artist Peter Lewis, was added to the structure. This man-made waterfall drops 45 metres (150 feet) from the top of the bridge into the North Saskatchewan below, and operates during holiday weekends in the summer months.

Extensive repairs and the addition and widening of pedestrian sidewalks were completed in 1994-95. The original lead paint on the bridge was carefully removed and over 100,000 litres of paint were used to recoat the girders.

Currently the upper level is the property of the Province of Alberta, so as to allow for the future high speed rail link transportation corridor to have access to downtown.

The Edmonton-area Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer uses a rivet hammer purportedly used in the bridge's construction as part of its ceremony.

Danish artist Olafur Eliasson will be creating a similar idea of an artistic set of waterfalls including one on New York Cities famous Brooklyn Bridge. He will be doing this in June of 2008. It is part of a public arts project. Three of the falls will cascade into the East River and New York Harbour from built up free standing scaffolding towers which are part of Eliassons vision for the piece. The waterfalls should be in place by June and operational for the public from mid-July to mid-October.