First Niagara Suspension Bridge. Whirlpool Bridge.
Bridging the mighty Niagara Gorge was a daunting challenge to engineers in the mid-1800s. But it made very good business sense to link the Canadian and American sides of Niagara Falls for trade and for passenger traffic.
As early as 1845, William Hamilton Merritt, the man who planned and promoted the first Welland Canal, saw the need for a bridge across the Niagara River into the United States. After years of meetings, charters were received and work was begun by two new organizations, the Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge Company of Canada, and the International Bridge Company of the United States.
The first challenge was how to establish a link over the gorge. A kite-flying contest was proposed, and the first successful kite was flown by by Homan Walsh, a 15-year old boy from Niagara Falls, New York, who had taken a ferry boat across the Niagara River to the Canadian side to take advantage of the prevailing winds. Stronger cables were attached to Homan's kite string and pulled across the gorge. Eventually, sturdy wooden towers were erected on either side, with a wire cable between them. Charles Ellett designed a metal basket to carry workmen and supplies back and forth. The enterprising Ellett also charged tourists one dollar to take the basket trip across the river.
Construction was completed by July 1848. The Boston Patriot newspaper reported, "…the architect and builder, Mr. Ellet, drove a horse and carriage across. I had the good fortune to be a witness to this noble feat. The bridge at a distance does not look larger comparatively than a piece of tape, or rather resembles a ribband stretched from shore to shore, with Liliputians passing to and fro." (Quote from "Bridges over the Niagara Gorge" by George A. Seibel.)
The Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge brought considerable tourist traffic to the area. The bridge originally carried only carriages and pedestrians, but in 1851, a second deck was added on top of the existing carriage deck to carry railway locomotives.
The designer of the double decked bridge was John Augustus Roebling. The bottom deck was used for carriages, and the top deck was used for trains. Construction began in September 1852, and the railway deck of the bridge was leased to the Great Western Railway in October 1853 for a yearly fee of $45,000. Spanning a distance of 821 feet, the Railway Suspension Bridge was completed in April 1854, and became the first suspension bridge in the world to carry railway trains. Amalgamation of the Great Western and Grand Trunk Railways was approved in 1882, and Grand Trunk assumed control over the railway deck. Great Western officially became part of Grand Trunk in 1884.
As a result of the increasing weight of newer and larger locomotives, the structure soon required reinforcement. In 1879-1880, the wooden truss of the bridge was replaced with steel, and maintenance work on the rest of the bridge was carried out under the supervision of Leffert L. Buck. The stone towers of the bridge were removed in 1886, and replaced with steel ones. After this change, the renovated bridge was sometimes referred to as "the third suspension bridge". In spite of these alterations, however, the bridge was unable to support the increasingly heavy volume and weight of traffic, and a decision was made to construct a new steel arch bridge.
Leffert L. Buck designed the new bridge and oversaw its construction, surveying the area in April 1893. The ground was broken for the foundations of the bridge on April 8, 1896, and the foundations were finished by September 28. The bridge-building contract was awarded to the Pennsylvania Steel Company on June 17, and work began on the actual bridge on September 17, 1896, at the exact location of the Railway Suspension Bridge. Timber scaffolding was set up on the bridge foundations to support the arch while it was being built. Both ends were constructed simultaneously, and were held in place by cables; one end was fastened to the unfinished end of the bridge while the other was secured to the anchors of the Railway Suspension Bridge. To prevent the sides of the arch from collapsing, the cables were kept taut by a hand cranked mechanism which required eighteen men to operate. When the two sides of the span were completed, preparations were made to lower them into their final position. Final adjustments were made, and the bridge was riveted together. The Bridge was tested on July 29, and it proved to be even stronger than Buck had expected. Construction was fully completed by August 27, 1897. The opening of the Lower Steel Arch Bridge was celebrated with a three-day carnival on September 23, 24 and 25, which boasted many activities including a spectacular fireworks display.
To allow passage across the River to continue during construction, the Lower Steel Arch Bridge was built under and around the steel truss of the old Railway Suspension Bridge. The suspension bridge remained open to traffic, except for two hours each day, during which time the old rails were replaced. When the Arch Bridge was completed, there were actually two bridges in the structure, one on top of the other. The builders had originally intended to disassemble the old bridge and reassemble it elsewhere, but a suitable location could not be found, and most of the materials of the Railway Suspension Bridge were instead scrapped.
Like the Railway Suspension Bridge, this new Lower Steel Arch Bridge was also double-decked. The bottom deck was reserved for carriages and the top deck, which was leased by the Grand Trunk Railway, was for trains. It proved to be very popular, and quickly became the main border crossing used by the local population. The Canadian National Railway took over the Grand Trunk Railway in 1920. Although the name of the Bridge was officially changed to the Whirlpool Rapids Bridge in 1937, it is still referred to as the "Lower Bridge" by many people. The Bridge remained busy during World War II, conveying war supplies across the border. Hundreds of Canadians with U.S. work permits also crossed the Whirlpool Bridge daily to work in American war factories. The bridge was painted in 1947, in preparation for the 100th anniversary of the first Niagara Suspension Bridge which was constructed in 1848.
In 1953, the Bridge Commission began negotiations for the purchase of the Whirlpool Bridge. Negotiations stalled, and the Commission ultimately did not purchase the Bridge until January 28, 1959, at a cost of $3,290,000. With the decline of rail transportation, one of the rail tracks was removed in 1963. Between September 5 and November 20, 1967, the Bridge was closed while the wooden floor of the carriage deck was removed and replaced with a wooden floor topped with asphalt. Due to heavy automobile traffic, however, the floor again had to be replaced in 1986, this time with reinforced concrete and asphalt. During the six month closure of the Bridge, the Canadian National Railway also replaced the rail tracks. In 1990, renovations to relieve traffic congestion on the Bridge were carried out at a cost of $120,000, which was shared by the Bridge Commission, the City of Niagara Falls and the Niagara Parks Commission.
The Whirlpool Bridge is the only bridge built in the last century which has survived to the present day in a virtually unaltered form. The 100th anniversary of the construction of the Lower Steel Arch Bridge was in 1997. In those 100 years, it has variously been known as the Niagara Railway Arch Bridge, the Grand Trunk Railway Bridge, the Grand Trunk Steel Arch Bridge, the Lower Steel Arch Bridge, the Lower Arch Bridge and the Whirlpool Rapids Bridge.
Since 23 May 2007, the NEXUS Trusted Traveller Pass system has been operational at the Whirlpool Bridge. It is now a dedicated NEXUS crossing for the exclusive use of Nexus passholders who use it to cross the border quickly.
Niagara Falls Public Library. 2017. Niagara Falls - Then & Now: A Photographic Journey Through The Years. First Niagara Suspension Bridge/Whirlpool Rapids Bridge.
Niagara Falls Then and Now
A collaborative project
Niagara Falls Museums - Niagara Falls Public Library - Dept. of Geography and Tourism Studies,Brock University.
Original newspaper series by
Sherman Zavitz, Official Historian for the City of Niagara Falls from 1994 - 2019.
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