St. Lawrence Bridges

The entire 130 mile route that the railway travelled provided the passenger with a vast array of scenery through its path. From Ottawa to Black River was flat terrain that gave train riders a view of Canadian farmers at work. Black River to Cornwall had drumlins, remnants of the last Ice Age, that were previews of what was to come in the south with three notable cuts. In the United States, riders experienced farmlands again from Rooseveltown to Moira then the farms would slowly disappear as the train continued through the hills until finally entering the Adirondack Mountain range, providing a view of logging operations, various mills and lakeside resorts. But of all those features, none spotlighted the achievement of human engineering skills as the grand bridge crossing between Cornwall and Rooseveltown.

The bridge system was made up of three separate spans. The first was over the Cornwall Canal and north channel of the St. Lawrence River. It was of cantilever design and the swing span, which was at the northern most part of the bridge, was a truss. Together as one, this structure gave Cornwall Island Native residents a physical means to get into the city. On June 23, 1908, a break in the canal caused the swing span’s pier to tip over, bringing the bridge down. A temporary structure was in place two months later and in 1909 a permanent span was back in place. It has been said that this bridge was the most photographed structure in Eastern Ontario (east of Ottawa), if not it certainly was in Cornwall itself. It made for a great spot to set up a camera when the steam ships that ran the Longue Sault Rapids passed under the bridge.

The second bridge was in the south channel of the St. Lawrence, made up of three Pratt trusses and three quarters of it was in American territory. Although not as photogenic, it still provided a means to enter the United States and gave the Natives of Cornwall Island a way to reach the other portions of their reserve without the use of a boat. Unfortunately, this was the site of Cornwall's worst disaster in claiming human lives. On September 6, 1898, pier #2 literally disappeared into the rushing waters, bringing two spans down just as the workers were near completion of the bridge’s erection. 15 workers lost their lives, six of which were buried in two Cornwall cemeteries. Of course, the bridge had to be rebuilt.

The third bridge is the only one still in existence today and remains in railway use. Two trusses were built over the Racquette River at Rooseveltown and this was included as part of the international crossing due to the short distance between it and the St. Lawrence ones.

Construction of the bridges began in 1897 and were scheduled to be completed in late 1898, but the collapse of the American span delayed the opening. Sooysmith Company was contracted to erect the piers and the Phoenix Bridge Company for the steelwork. After the disaster, Phoenix continued to build the north span but after the winter break the rebuilding of the south span went to Union Bridge Company.  Dejected, Phoenix never returned to Cornwall. They had stated that a much more important project needed all their attention and could not afford to go back to Cornwall to "place a few rivets and paint the north channel bridge." That other project was the Quebec Bridge. So after sub-contracting out the north span completion, the Canadian-American link opened on October 1, 1900. Since its opening, citizens and businessmen from both Massena and Cornwall had asked for the bridges to be planked for individual crossings. Serious talk didn’t start until the 1920s and finally, the north and south channel bridges were planked for automobiles and opened on May 17, 1934. The Racquette River bridge was not planked though.  Instead a separate road bridge was constructed on its west side, which also stands today for continued automobile use.  At the time, it was the longest electrically welded bridge in the world.

The bridge system had a few names in its lifetime. At first, it was known as the Ottawa & New York Railway Bridges, but after 1905 it became the New York Central Bridges. An official name was finally placed on them on June 30, 1934 when the spans were officially opened to motor vehicle traffic, carrying the name of the Roosevelt International Bridges. They remained under that name up until their removal (see the Seaway Diversion page for explanation).