Last year, Radio-Canada told us that water under the bridge would be polluted Quebec, probably because the painting of the bridge (which contains lead) with the eroding river to the weather and terrain under the bridge. Last week, it's a gaping hole that has formed on the south access bridge, delaying the passage of far-shore south to the north shore on Monday, February 21, 2011. Nevertheless, this symbol of engineering holds for almost 100 years now above the St. Lawrence River. It is therefore interesting to briefly recall certain events surrounding the bridge.
The Quebec Bridge is a cantilever bridge and the central span of 549 meters is the longest in the world. The project is part of the project transcontinental railroad of the Government of Canada at the turn of the twentieth century. Many sites and sources, including this interesting article the encyclopedia of the cultural heritage of French America, describes the bridge and history. Some contemporary sources about the two collapses.
Source: "Quebec Bridge Disaster - looking south", The Montreal Weekly Witness , P. 2 online consultation , February 26, 2011.
August 29, 1907, the bridge collapses once (above). The reports of this tragedy are many: sometimes detached, sometimes very moving (and especially detailed reports rather than the twenty-first century media sometimes present) as evidenced by this transcript of an article from a Montreal weekly Bulletin (Sunday, 1 September 1907, p. 1):
August 29, 1907, the bridge collapses once (above). The reports of this tragedy are many: sometimes detached, sometimes very moving (and especially detailed reports rather than the twenty-first century media sometimes present) as evidenced by this transcript of an article from a Montreal weekly Bulletin (Sunday, 1 September 1907, p. 1):
[...] Latest information relating to the collapse of the Quebec bridge, although imprecise as to the cause, are more when the results of this lamentable disaster.
The number of victims exceeds sixty, and this figure will surely be increased even as many of the unfortunate workers who were removed alive from rubble claims, will not survive their horrific injuries.
A huge flat mourning today over the city of Quebec, the province and Canada as a whole.
At the first moment of surprise was followed by a huge feeling of deep and painful sympathy with the families of many victims. We read with dismay the account of the sad details on the state in which it was found that the poor died in the crash of iron. Their injuries were horrific, horrifying their wounds, their limbs torn off lay clinging to pieces of iron bent, and mangled bodies, disfigured, floated over the water.
From the shore, men, women and children, which we guess the emotion, heard appeals and groans of the wounded. Alas, what pen can never describe the horror of such a picture!
For our part, we give it up ... [...]
Still interesting waive describe such a picture after a few lines very descriptive ... For its part, the Montreal Weekly Witness another week of the metropolis, provides a complete picture in its edition of September 3. Not only will there be a detailed description of the facts, a list of deaths, but we add a few stories that provided the drama, ranging from a warning to the engineer Theodore Cooper in a story of dreams prescient ( Montreal Weekly Witness , p. 2, 3 September 1907):
Remarkable vision-Ironworker of New Haven dreamed that Quebec Bridge had fallen-New Haven, Conn., Aug. 30.- Edward Sutton, an ironworker, of this city, who worked on the bridge at Quebec for a time last spring, said to-day that about a month ago he dreamed that this very bridge had fallen. He says that the dream so impressed him that he wrote to a bridge worker named Richard Little, of this city, and told him of the impressions he had received, and in consequence, Mr. Sutton says, Little and his side partner threw up their work nad (sic) went elsewhere.
Source: A. A. Chersterfield, Quelques moments avant the collapse of the central span of the Quebec Bridge in 1916 , Library and Archives Canada (copy on wikipedia.org) online consultation , March 22, 2010.
The second accident took place September 11, 1916. It is at the center span up and hang at both ends (above) that the accident occurs. As it takes place at a crucial moment, leaving it up to the weekly Montreal Weekly Witness to describe the scene (September 12, 1916, p. 2):
After [...] The span HAD Been Hooked On The trusses, Which Were Connected with the arms, and, which were to lift the span to its place, there was a wait until 9.20 o'clock, when the scows were released and floated away with the tide, to be caught by tugs. This, the engineers said, was the crucial moment, as the weight was first placed on the arms: then a great cheer broke out when it was seen that the scows were clear and the span hanging on the arms.Attempts to explain the tragedy quickly (another photo, below) as evidenced by this short week of Quebec, The Truth (p. 3, 16 September 1916):
It had been moved up about three feet by the jacks when the excursion and Government boats began to leave, but barley had they disappeared on their way to Quebec when the span broke away first at one end of the jacks and a great cry of horror rose from the spectators. Then the other end snapped off quickly and the whole 5,100 tons disappeared in the river.
The Cause of the accident-Following a conference between the officers and engineers on the fall of the bridge deck central Quebec, MGH Duggan, chief engineer of the St. Lawrence Bridge Limited, having heard the stories of several eyewitnesses, authorized the following statement:
A serious review of the office indicates that the engineers Central shield Quebec Bridge was lost by a defect in the ascending and joists on which the structure rested for six weeks. The cantilever arms are affected and no one is preparing to replace the fallen inside as soon as practicable.
It has now been conclusively established that the deck gave way first to the south and it is virtually certain, according stories more credible, that the deck has not folded, but he fell almost intact.
The plagues (sic) lives are twelve.
Source: AA Chesterfield Collapse of bridge deck central Quebec , McCord Museum (copy on the website of the University of Sherbrooke), online consultation , March 22, 2010.
Opened September 20, 1917 and still standing today, the Quebec Bridge is one of the signatures distinguishing the built landscape of the region of Quebec. The Quebec Bridge is considered a National Historic Site of Canada since January 1996. But a complete restoration project is still pending. Rumor has long been that iron rings engineers were made from metal from the center span of the Quebec Bridge collapsed. This rumor is actually an urban legend, sometimes still peddled today.
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