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The Burgoyne bridge located on Niagara Regional Road, St. Catharines. It is over Highway 406 and the Twelve Mile Creek, which connects St. Catharines downtown and St. Paul Street. The first bridge built was in 1915 that used to be known as "St. Paul High-Level bridge" it was built by the steel and coal corporation and owned by the municipality of Niagara. This bridge is the main purpose that carries traffic along to and from St. Catharines downtown. The observations of the Niagara community first developed the Burgoyne bridge as they observed how inconvenient the travel was driving from the canal valley to downtown St. Catharines. This bridge is the first bridge to be built with steel in St. Catharines. Also, the arch built during the renovation of 2014 -2016 is also a main feature of the bridge, and it was made to give the city a more modernized look. However, humans impacted this bridge by giving it a bad reputation as the rates of deaths by suicide has increased ever since the renovation of the bridge has finished. Instead of appreciating the bridge for its convenience and modern look, local people now today look at the bridge as an afflicted area to acknowledge.

Municipality: City of St. Catharines

Local area name: The Burgoyne Bridge

Other identifying names or descriptions: St.Paul High Level Bridge

Latitude: 43.153641 Longitude: -79.246552

Physical Dimensions (of the bridge)

Length: 333 meters long

Width: N/A

Surface Area: N/A

Elevation:

Highest / lowest point: 110 meters / 86 meters

The Burgoyne bridge was built over the Twelve Mile creek and highway 406 in 1915 by the Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation that was initially known as the "St. Paul's high-level bridge". This bridge's purpose was to solve the nuisance for the community, making it easier to travel from the downtown core of St. Catharines to the Western Hill community or vice versa. In 2009, the bridge underwent an inspection, and it resulted that the bridge was beyond the point of rehabilitation. In 2014, the construction of the replacement bridge began and finished in 2017. This bridge is owned by the municipality of Niagara and cost close to 100 million dollars to build, most of the challenges for the workers were managing the traffic throughout the project, working through the winter, and having the presence of 12-mile creek and highway 406 meaning that there is limited space in their workspace. Thorough out these challenges faced within the three years resulted in the replacement bridge composed of box girders and built 330 meters from the ground and built with a 125-meter arch to give the city a new modernized look. In, 2017 this bridge won the Ontario Steel Design Award and the award for excellence in the Transportation category at the Canadian Consulting Engineering Awards on October 24, in Ottawa. Although there are many impacts on and around this bridge, we will discover below.

Map 1: Displays an overview of the Burgoyne bridge

Mostly under the Burgoyne Bridge, there are many plant species that not everyone acknowledges, whether it is naturally there or planted. Either way, these plants play a crucial role in the urban environment besides an aesthetic one. Their functions can be to modify cold and warm climates, reduce air pollution, improving water quality, serve cultural traditions, and to have economic value (Hough, 2004). The type of plants that are under the bridge is mostly different species of maple and oak trees that sit along the Twelve Mile Creek. With all this vegetation around the bridge, you would come across animal species that live around the area because the layering of forest vegetation provides distinct environments that support different groups of species (Hough, 2004). Based on observations, animals found within the area of the bridge are various species of birds, fish, squirrels, deer's and skunks. In general, many plants and animals become endangered due to human activities, more specifically talking about land-use practices like deforestation, urban, and suburban development that invade upon and destroy natural habitat. The Burgoyne bridge falls under this category, as constructing this bridge the construction crew followed multiple procedures in their contract to reduce plants and animals from becoming endangered. They were to mitigate wildlife disturbances due to noise, dust, and habitat encroachment; the city would also do wildlife sweeps before the construction, and if found, the wildlife habitats will be isolated. Replacing the Burgoyne bridge introduced a contract package that had Tree Protection Zones and provided a re-planting plan. As people know that a tree can be a habitat for many birds, under the contracts, the construction crew was ruled to make efforts to minimize the impacts to trees and to maintain the existing trees when vegetation removal was required. Also, under the contract, vegetation removal would be completed outside of the bird nesting periods.

These pictures are an example of what type of trees you would find around Burgoyne bridge, whereas the first picture just shows the amount of vegetation is around the area.

The Burgoyne bridge currently connects the Western Hill community to the downtown core of St. Catharines underneath this bridge is where the area's geological feature can be discovered, which is the river known as the Twelve Mile Creek. This area in the bridge's location is a river basin, which is defined to be a dip in the earth's surface shaped like a bowl with sides higher than the bottom (Parsons,2017). Fundamental changes that affect the area under the Burgoyne bridge is the water level, observing the air photos from 1934 to 2018 you can notice that the river expands to the dry regions over time. Water levels rise due to higher global temperatures because of the melting factors due to global warming increasing overtime (smith, 2009). Human-induced changes around this area would include deforestation by getting rid of some trees and nature around the city to build the bridge. Migration plays a crucial role displayed in the air photos you can see the increase of homes built over the years. As well as transportation infrastructures are meaning the roads built and the highway 406 built is another example of human-induced changes because these infrastructures can lead to habitat fragmentation where wildlife are forced to find another place to live. As we identified physical features around my studied area, some physical characteristics of the bridges are the 125-meter arch; this design is related to the previous bridge and other historical crossings of the same valley in St. Catharines (Parsons,2017). In 2009, the old bridge underwent an inspection, and it was beyond the point in rehabilitation which resulted in the construction of the replacement bridge in 2014.

Under the bridge is the Twelve Mile Creek, the Twelve Mile Creek is named for its 12 miles from the Niagara River. It drains a watershed of approximately 178 square feet, which is grouped into six sub-watersheds. It is the only identified cold water stream in the Niagara Region. However, the Niagara Water Strategy, NPCA Groundwater Study, and the Niagara Peninsula Source Protection Area Assessment Report have identified portions of Twelve Mile Creek watershed as highly vulnerable to groundwater contamination (Greenbelt, n.d). This contamination is because humans are altering the hydrologic processes through a range of behaviors, which are; consuming more water, changing the land cover, building artificial infrastructures, and throwing our waste into the river. As a result, the amount of precipitation varies more, runoff increases, and changes occur in flow regimes, drainage pathways, and even the composition of the water and sediments (Alberti, M. 2008). The rivers sea level increased, observing photos from 1934 to 2018 you can notice that the river expands to the dry areas over time.

There were no articles and news about human-induced changes that have specifically occurred on this bridge that talked about climate change. However, there are many articles about the same bridge types over highways and rivers, having many impacts on the environment. The common negative impacts are the loss of fish habitats due to accidental pollution in the water while constructing the bridge, ecosystem destruction sometimes where the bridge needs to be therefore, the contractors would need to clear up some space, sound pollution due to the noise generated while construction takes place can harm the activity of animals, loss of agricultural land, and migration of the animals that used to live within the construction zone. Although there are a few major positive impacts that include plantation and road communication (Hasan, 2017). These negative impacts are obviously due to the process of constructing the bridge, all the material, and resources they used to affect the climate with all the dust generated to all the disposal of unwanted material. However, the fact that this bridge is over the Twelve Mile Creek helped climate change because vegetation and water have a major effect on microclimate within cities. Large areas of paved and hard surfaces in the city generate the greatest heat in summer, establishing canopy vegetation this will reduce the adverse effects of the urban heat island and also remove dust and purify toxic gases and other chemicals (Hough, M. 2004). Another effect on climate change related to this study area is the increase in population as you see below that from 1934 to 2018 that there's an increase in human populations by noticing the housing development. This development in houses hurts our environment because overpopulation is one of the largest threats to the earth; it comes to the buildup of human-generated greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which affects the climate.

Comparing these air photos from 1934 to 2018, you can observe the amount of development around the Burgoyne bridge from the increase of housing to the development of roads and highways. Retrieved from: Niagara Navigator (citation in refrences)

In the 20th century, the city made the crossing of the Twelve Mile Creek a top municipal priority because they saw the nuisance from the access from the downtown core to the all-important Railway Stations west of the city. This was a struggle to travel to because of the steep banks on either side of the creek. This problem also limited the city's expansion to the west. (Niagara Greenbelt, 2010). However, a man named William Burgoyne, who was once the mayor of St. Catharines and the editor of the St. Catharines newspaper residents saw this problem of people traveling back and forth between the steep and hills on St. Paul Street West. He then began to envision a bridge across Twelve Mile Creek to help the convenience of the community. Eleven months of construction and the cost of $155,000 resulted in building the bridge that developed in 1915, which was named after him (Niagara Greenbelt, 2010). However, creating this bridge, several essential buildings had to be demolished, including a private residence, the General and Marine Hospital on Cherry Street, and a training school for nurses (Niagara Greenbelt, 2010). After the Burgoyne Bridge was constructed, it was projected to be replaced entirely in 1975 through scientific predictions, but from multiple inspections and maintenance helped extend the lifespan of the bridge. A timeline of renovations first starts when the bridge deck was replaced in 1962 at the cost of $110,000. Repairs were then made in 1975 that cost around $300,000, and in 1989 they installed shielding to protect pedestrians from being sprayed with slush from passing traffic in the winter that cost approximately 3 million dollars. In 2007 deck repairs and painting introduced and approved by Niagara Region for six million dollars, and in 2017 the bridge was replaced that cost close to 100 million dollars (Niagara Greenbelt, 2010). The repairs and replacements are because of people traveling on and off the bridge. Other than physically being on the deck, the land use around the bridge was mostly residentially around the Burgoyne bridge weather impacted the bridge and rusted it.

Education / Interpretation: The Brock University GIS Library has interpretive resources available on the Burgoyne bridge. They can provide mostly air photos of the bridge,

The St. Catharines Library you can find background information about the Burgoyne bridge about how and when it was developed also you can find books and a picture of how they develop the bridge.

The Niagara region website is another educational resource that can help provide more background information about the bridge.

Architectural Heritage: No buildings or built environments are found on the Burgoyne Bridge, what's mostly found on the bridge is vandalism of encouragement notes that help prevent suicide. Monuments are also found on the downtown side, honoring soldiers that used to live in that area. The city removed the vandalism overtime.

Recreational Uses: Hiking trails that led to the bottom of the Burgoyne bridge and are along the twelve-mile creek are available to the public.

The owner of the Burgoyne bridge is the Regional Municipality of Niagara, so every city or town within the Niagara region owns this bridge, in fact, people within the Niagara region paid for this bridge through taxes. Public access to the Burgoyne Bridge is permitted. You could walk or drive on the bridge at any time of the day. The city has influenced the Burgoyne bridge reputation over time as they remove vandalism from the deck and install crisis lines at the entrance of the bridges because throughout the year's people have jumped off the bridge. As the city doesn't want this bridge to be known for jumping off of it, they monitor it and raise awareness for depression and mental illness. In the future, the city is planning to install suicide barriers to resolve this issue. The bridge does not fall under any zoning, official plan designation, or other land use controls. It was built to get from one side of the Twelve Mile Creek to the other side. There are no groups, agencies, or organizations that manage the Burgoyne bridge; the city takes care and maintains the bridge. Changes that occurred on the bridge is merely making it more comprehensive and adding the arch to it for the looks of the city.

Burgoyne bridge is connected to St. Paul street, which connects the downtown community and the Western Hill community. There is much history that surrounds this bridge; it was known to be located at the heart of St. Catharines when the shipman's corner was in business. In the book, "Advances in urban ecology" explains the four dimensions Alberti uses to describe the patterns of urban landscapes, and they were forms, density, heterogeneity, connectivity. Using these four dimensions concerning the bridge's air photos shown above, the first element, form, refers to the degree of centralization of the urban structure, which you can see the houses and buildings are the dominate feature around the Burgoyne bridge. The second element, density, is the ratio of the population as you can see that there are several houses developed throughout time, meaning there is an increase in population in the area. The third element, heterogeneity, indicates the diversity of functional land uses such as residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional, which you can see in the air photos that from 1934 to 2018 that every space on the maps has either house developing or roads developing. The fourth element, connectivity, measures the movement of organisms and the flow of resources across a given location. You can see this dimension by observing the vegetation as time passes the fewer plants present this is because we are removing animal habitats like trees and replacing them with houses or parks causing migration in animals. The bridge or highway can be an example of the flow of resources. Therefore, out of the four dimensions, this bridge actively displays connectivity because it shows that human-dominated ecosystems tend to overpower other environments. For example, the roads and highways are human-dominated ecosystems that help develop landscape connectivity, which facilitates the flow of resources and organisms. Therefore, as urban development enhances the connectivity of human activities while decreasing the chances of species survival and increasing species extinction. (Alberti, M. 2008)

This video was retrieved by https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jid85xHt-c

Niagara Region

Municipal administration office in Thorold, Ontario

Address: 1815 Sir Isaac Brock Way, Thorold, ON L2V 4T7

Hours:

Open ⋅ Closes 4:30 p.m.

Phone: (905) 980-6000

Province: Ontario

Contractor: Pomerleau

Address: 185 The West Mall #1100, Etobicoke, ON M9C 5L6

Hours: :

Open ⋅ Closes 5 p.m.

Phone: (416) 207-0848

Province: Ontario

Text and online sources :

Alberti, M. 2008. Advances in urban ecology [electronic resource] : integrating humans and ecological processes in urban ecosystems / Marina Alberti. n.p.: New York : Springer, c2008., 2008. Brock University Library Catalogue, EBSCOhost (accessed August 27, 2014).

"Burgoyne Bridge", Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada, 8 Jan. 2019, www.niagararegion.ca/projects/stpaul-bridge-replacement/pdf/project-file-report.pdf.

"Burgoyne Bridge." Burgoyne Bridge (St. Paul Street Bridge) - HistoricBridges.org, historicbridges.org/bridges/browser/?bridgebrowser=truss%2Fburgoyne%2F

Endangered Species - Human Causes Of Extinction And Endangerment. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://science.jrank.org/pages/2465/Endangered-Species-Human-causes-extinction-endangerment.html

Hasan, Irteja. (2017). Environmental Impact Assessment of Lebukhali Bridge Construction Project over the River of Paira, Bangladesh. Environmental Impact Assessment of Lebukhali Bridge Construction Project over the River of Paira, Bangladesh. Vol. 2. pp. 10-15. 10.11648/j.jeece.20170202.11.

Hough, Michael. Cities and Natural Process. Vol. 2nd ed, Routledge, 2004.

Human Population Growth and Climate Change. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/population_and_sustainability/climate/.

Parsons, Burgoyne Bridge Replacement Design and Erection, 2017. https://www.canadianconsultingengineer.com/cce/awards/2017/B4_BurgoyneBridgeReplacement.pdf)

National Geographic Society. "Basin." National Geographic Society, 9 Oct. 2012, www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/basin/.

Smith. (2009, January 13). Could the Oceans Rise Enough to Reverse the Flow of Rivers? Retrieved November 6, 2019, from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/could-the-oceans-rise-enough/.

Twelve Mile Creek. (n.d.). Retrieved November 4, 2019, from https://www.greenbelt.ca/twelve_mile_creek.

Map References :

Google Maps. Retrieved from https://maps.google.com (Accessed 6/11/2019)

Niagara Navigator. 1934, 2000, 2002,2010, 2013,2015, 2018 Map of Niagara Falls. Retrieved from https://maps.niagararegion.ca/Navigator/(Accessed 6/11/2019)

This Local Landscape Report was prepared by Sydney Morales for the Brock University course TMGT 2P94: Human Dominated Ecosystems on November 7, 2019.

All copyrights for cited material rest with the original copyright owners.