March 11, 1967
The Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine Bridge-Tunnel in Canada was officially opened. This Quebec-based structure, which runs both over and beneath the St. Lawrence River and carries the Autoroute 25 expressway, links the Island of Montreal with the south shore of that river at the city of Longueuil.
This bridge-tunnel was named in honor of noted 19th century Canadian statesman Sir Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine. Construction on the structure had begun in 1963, and those present at its dedication ceremonies included Quebec Premier Daniel Johnson. The Lafontaine Bridge-Tunnel made its debut only 47 days before the opening of the Montreal-based World’s Fair, which is better remembered today as Expo 67.
There were several sources of inspiration for the design of the 1.1-mile (1.8-kilometer)-long Lafontaine Bridge-Tunnel. These sources included similar structures already in place in both Cuba and the Canadian province of British Columbia.
Along with being the longest bridge-tunnel in Canada, the Lafontaine Bridge-Tunnel is one of the world’s largest prestressed concrete structures. (The above 2009 photo depicts the entrance to the tunnel on the Montreal side.)
Photo Credit: Blanchardb (licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license at Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0)
For more information on the Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine Bridge-Tunnel, please check out Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine Bridge–Tunnel – Wikipedia
