1981: A Canadian Bridge Opens on a Rainy Saturday Afternoon

September 19, 1981

A bridge spanning the Saint John River in Fredericton, the capital city of the Canadian province of New Brunswick was officially dedicated. This bridge is an extension of Westmorland Street in the central district of Fredericton and it connects that area with New Brunswick Route 105 in the city’s neighborhood of Nashwaaksis.

Despite heavy rain, more than 200 people turned out for the grand opening of the Westmorland Street Bridge. That Saturday afternoon’s festivities included a ceremonial cutting of the ribbon by Richard Hatfield, premier of New Brunswick between 1970 and 1987; and Wilfred Bishop,  minister of the province’s Department of Transportation from 1972 to 1985.

After both this part of the event and the formal unveiling of a plaque that bears the bridge’s name, Hatfield and Bishop relinquished the scissors they had each used for cutting their respective portions of the ribbon and presented those scissors to others in attendance. Hatfield gave his scissors to bridge engineer Neil Gilbert. The recipient of Bishop’s scissors was Elbridge Wilkins, the mayor of Fredericton from 1974 to 1986.

Measuring 2,460 feet (750 meters) in length, the Westmorland Street Bridge is a continuous steel girder structure that carries a total of four traffic lanes. There is a pathway for pedestrians and bicycles on the north side of those lanes.

Photo Credit: Verne Equinox (licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en)

For more information on bridges in Canada, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bridges_in_Canada