NFPP 24 - Suspension Bridge Foundations

The Limit of Suspension by Jane Urquhart


On three small scraps of paper

grandmother writes

how the suspension bridge

fell down

how the cotton wool

crash

pulled her from

starched sheets to the

lung-stopping chill

of the january night

how her shoes squeaked

in the snow

and looking at the

suspension bridge

lying

broken-backed against the ice

like an injured dragon

grandmother

must have wondered at

each of her magic crossings

but writes here

only

the suspension bridge

fell down

and it did make a noise

Source: Urquhart, Jane. False Shuffles. Victoria: Press Porcépic, 1982. Section entitled The Undertaker's Bride.

View this poem on the Niagara Falls Poetry Project website



Postcard of the Maid of the Mist steamer in front of the Upper Steel Arch Bridge c1920.
 


 


 


 


Across the gorge the remains of the foundations of the Fallsview Suspension Bridge, referred to in the poem above, can be seen. This was destroyed in a storm in 1889, rebuilt, and then replaced by the Upper Steel Arch Bridge in 1898. This bridge, aka the Honeymoon Bridge and the Fallsview Bridge, was destroyed by a massive build up of ice in 1938.

It was replaced by the Rainbow Bridge, finished in 1942, and which was moved just north of the Upper Steel Arch Bridge. In this area the gorge narrows and it is the start of the lower rapids, which leads into the whirlpool further downstream.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries the bridge was crossed with few border restrictions. This resulted in many cross-border marriages, with families living in the area for generations having relatives on both sides of the broder.

 
 


This point of interest is one of many on the GuideTags app –
a free digital interpretive guide that features thematic tours, routes, and discovery sessions,
and automatically tells geolocated stories about the places that surround us.
Download the app today, and start exploring!
Contact us if you would like to create your own content.
Report an error or inappropriate content.