Montréal Bridges
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Spanning the Saint Lawrence River and Saint Lawrence Seaway
This list of bridges and other fixed links serving the
Island of Montreal proceeds counter-clockwise around the
island from southwest, at the exit of Lake Saint-Louis,
downstream along the St. Lawrence River, then upstream along
Rivière des Prairies all the way to Lake of Two Mountains,
then downstream again along the East Channel of the Ottawa
River until it reaches Lake Saint-Louis. The year of
construction is that of the structure currently in place,
accompanied by the year of construction of the original
structure if the current one replaced an older span.
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Saint-Laurent Railway Bridge
The Saint-Laurent Railway Bridge is a Canadian Pacific railway
bridge linking LaSalle to the Kahnawake Mohawk Reserve, just upstream
of the Mercier Bridge. It is used by the AMT Delson-Candiac commuter
train. CSX trains, via the Montreal Subdivision, also use this bridge.
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Honoré Mercier Bridge
The Honoré Mercier Bridge in Quebec, Canada, connects
the Montreal borough of LaSalle on the Island of Montreal
with the Mohawk reserve of Kahnawake and the suburb of
Chateauguay on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River.
It is the most direct southerly route from the island of
Montreal toward the US border. It carries Route 138,
originally Route 4. It is 1.361 km in length and
contains four steel trusses on its first section. The height
of the bridge varies from 12.44 m to 33.38 m
with the highest sections located over the St Lawrence
Seaway. The bridge is named after former premier of Quebec
Honoré Mercier.
The bridge has two lanes of traffic in each direction
and a total span of nearly two kilometres. At its highest
point, the bridge rises 36 metres above the river. There is
a narrow sidewalk on the side headed to Chateauguay that can
be crossed by foot or bicycle. The roadway is characterized
by numerous repairs.
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Champlain Bridge
The Champlain Bridge (French: Pont Champlain) is a
steel truss cantilever bridge with approach viaducts
constructed of prestressed concrete beams supporting a
prestressed concrete deck paved with asphalt. The bridge
crosses the Saint Lawrence River and Saint Lawrence Seaway,
connecting the Montreal boroughs of Verdun and Le Sud-Ouest
to Brossard on the South Shore.
The bridge, with approaches, is approximately six
kilometres in length. When the project began, the bridge was
designated as the "Nuns' Island Bridge" because it crosses
over Nuns' Island. In 1958, it was officially named the
Champlain Bridge in honour of the explorer Samuel de
Champlain who founded Quebec City in 1608.
With nearly 160,000 daily crossings, the Champlain
Bridge is the busiest bridge in Canada.
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Victoria Bridge
Victoria Bridge (French: Pont Victoria), officially
known as Victoria Jubilee Bridge, is a bridge over the St.
Lawrence River, linking Montreal, Quebec, to the south shore
city of Saint-Lambert.
Route 112. Canadian National Railway, AMT Mont-Saint-Hilaire,
VIA Rail, and Amtrak over the Saint Lawrence River
Opened in 1859, the bridge was the first to span the
St. Lawrence River, and as such is an important historic
bridge in Canada. It remains in use to this day, carrying
both road and rail traffic, with rails in the middle and
roadways (part of Route 112) on both sides. It is actively
used by the Canadian National Railway on its Halifax to
Montreal main line. It is a major contributor to Montreal's
role as a continental hub in the North American rail system.
Its designation for the CN is Mile 71.40 subdivision
St-Hyacinthe.
Originally named the Victoria Bridge in honour of Queen
Victoria, it was officially rededicated as the Victoria
Jubilee Bridge following renovations in 1897.
However it is still commonly referred to by its
original name as simply the "Victoria Bridge".
The bridge is approximately 3 kilometres (2 miles)
long, and includes 24 ice-breaking piers.
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Concordia Bridge
The Concordia Bridge (Pont de la Concorde) carries
Avenue Pierre-Dupuy across the St. Lawrence River between
the main island of Montreal and Parc Jean-Drapeau on Saint
Helen's Island. A majority of its traffic is motorists
driving to the Montreal Casino on Île Notre-Dame, continuing
on Pierre Dupuy Avenue across Pont des Îles. This bridge was
also used during Expo 67 by the Montreal Expo Express train.
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Jacques Cartier Bridge
The Jacques Cartier Bridge (French: pont
Jacques-Cartier) is a steel truss cantilever bridge crossing
the Saint Lawrence River from Montreal Island, Montreal,
Quebec to the south shore at Longueuil, Quebec, Canada. The
bridge crosses Île Sainte-Hélène in the centre of the river,
where offramps allow access to the Parc Jean-Drapeau and La
Ronde amusement park.
Originally named the Montreal Harbour Bridge (pont du
Havre), it was renamed in 1934 to commemorate the 400th
anniversary of Jacques Cartier's first voyage up the St.
Lawrence River.
The five-lane highway bridge is 3,400 m in
length, including the approach viaducts. There are
approximately 35.4 million vehicle crossings annually,
making it the second busiest bridge in Canada that is
operated by the Federal Bridge Corporation Limited, the
first being Champlain Bridge, just a few kilometres
upstream. It is the third busiest bridge in Canada overall
after the Port Mann Bridge in Metro Vancouver (connecting
Surrey to Coquitlam).
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Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine Bridge-Tunnel
The Louis Hippolyte Lafontaine Bridge-Tunnel (Pont-Tunnel
Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine) is a Canadian highway bridge-tunnel
running over and beneath the St. Lawrence River. It connects the
Island of Montreal with the south shore of the river at Longueuil,
Quebec.
Construction began in 1963 and it was commissioned on March 11,
1967. Named for the respected Lower Canada political reformer
Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine, the Lafontaine Tunnel is an immersed tube
structure, measuring 1,391 m (4,563.6 ft) long. It carries the
Autoroute 25 expressway and passes beneath Île Charron (Îles de
Boucherville & entrance/exit #1 of Autoroute 25), as well as the main
shipping channel in the St. Lawrence River immediately downstream from
the St. Lawrence Seaway.
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Spanning the Rivière des Prairies
Although the Rivière des Prairies is much smaller than the
Saint Lawrence, bridge construction there did not begin
until the 1840s—when rapid construction began on three
wooden toll bridges to what is now Laval, one of which, Pont
des Saints-Anges, collapsed in the 1880s and was never
rebuilt. The existence of regular ferry services across
the river is attested from 1813, but these ferries were
discontinued when the bridges opened. The first railroad
across the river was opened in 1876, and the Bordeaux
Railway Bridge is the oldest fixed link to Laval that is
still standing. (Another bridge across Rivière des Mille
Îles, which was part of the same line, collapsed in 1882 but
was immediately rebuilt.) The highway construction boom
of the 1960s and 1970s led to the construction of four new
freeway bridges across the river, and the upgrading of the
existing Pie IX Bridge to freeway standards.
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Le Gardeur Bridge
The Le Gardeur Bridge is a beam bridge that connects
the east end of the island of Montreal to Charlemagne, Quebec.
The bridge has two different sections across the
Rivière des Prairies which are separated by Île Bourdon. The
length of the two structures is 297 meters (west) and 565
meters (east).
Built in 1939, the bridge underwent a major
reconstruction in 2001 as well as the addition of a reserved
lane for the Metrobus on the eastern structure. The work
included the demolition, reconstruction and widening of the
bridge deck (that included the new transit lane) and its
approaches as well as the rehabilitation of the 24 pillars.
The Quebec Ministry of Transportation also made emergency
repairs in 1999 to solidify the structure while frequent
inspections were made between 1999 and the reconstruction of
the bridge which was estimated at over $26 million.
The bridge is part of Quebec Route 138, which runs from
the Canadian-US border southwest of Huntingdon to the
Côte-Nord region via Trois-Rivières and Quebec City. It is
one of only two river crossings at the eastern tip of
Montreal to the Lanaudière region (Repentigny, Charlemagne
and Lavaltrie areas), the other being the Charles de Gaulle
Bridge on Quebec Autoroute 40.
Each day, approximatively 20,000 vehicles use the
bridge, which is an alternative route to the more congested
Charles de Gaulle Bridge during rush hours. The road has
two lanes of traffic in each direction, together with
sidewalks and a bicycle lane/path. On both sides of the
bridge it is known as Rue Notre-Dame but immediately after
crossing the bridge, westbound Route 138 turns into
Sherbrooke Street via a new roundabout through most of the
eastern half of the island including downtown Montreal.
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Laurier Railway Bridge
The Laurier Railway Bridge (often referred to as Pierre Le
Gardeur railway bridge, after the road bridge next to it) carries
the Canadian National Railway from Montreal (Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles)
to Repentigny (North Shore) via Île Bourdon.
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Charles de Gaulle Bridge
The Charles de Gaulle Bridge is a bridge that links the
eastern tip of the island of Montreal, Quebec over the
Rivière des Prairies to the Lanaudière region near the city
of Charlemagne. The bridge is named after President of the
Republic of France Charles de Gaulle who inspired the
sovereignty movement in Quebec during the 1960s with his
Vive le Québec libre speech in Montreal in 1967 the same
year the bridge was built.
The bridge is part of Quebec Autoroute 40 and is only
one of two bridge crossings from Montreal to the
Repentigny/Charlemagne region with the other being the
Pierre Le Gardeur Bridge on Notre-Dame Street. As being by
far the fastest link to downtown Montreal, the road is often
very congested during rush hours with traffic backing up as
far as Repentigny in the morning with heavy congestion
eastbound during the afternoon. The bridge is also part of
the fastest travel link between Montreal and the cities of
Trois-Rivières and Quebec City both located on the northern
shores of the Saint Lawrence River.
The bridge has three lanes of traffic in each
direction. The six-lane segment on A-40 eastbound continues
until after the Quebec Autoroute 640 junction.
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Highway 25 Bridge
The Highway 25 Bridge is an as yet unnamed Toll bridge
currently under construction over the Rivière des
Prairies, between Laval's Duvernay district and
Montreal's Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles borough.
The long anticipated construction began in early 2008,
despite a last-ditch attempt by Greenpeace to block the
project, and the bridge is scheduled to open in May 2011.
It will be a cable-stayed bridge carrying 6 lanes of
Quebec Autoroute 25. The bridge is part of a 7.2-km-long
project for the completion of Highway 25, and will allow
drivers and buses to avoid the Pie IX Bridge upstream. It
will also provide a route around the city of Montreal.
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Pie IX Bridge
The Pie IX Bridge is a Quebec bridge, spanning the
Rivière des Prairies. It connects the Saint-Vincent-de-Paul
area of Laval, on Île Jésus, and the borough of Montreal
North in Montreal, on the Island of Montreal. The bridge is
part of Autoroute 25 until the construction of a new toll
bridge which would connect the two branches of A-25 instead
of being part of a multiplex with Autoroute 40 until Pie-IX
Boulevard.
While the official name is Le Caron Bridge, after
Joseph Le Caron, an early missionary to the Hurons; the
bridge is most commonly called the Pie IX Bridge, after
Pie-IX Boulevard. The Boulevard itself was named after Pope
Pius IX (Pie is the French name for Pius).
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Papineau-Leblanc Bridge
The Papineau-Leblanc Bridge was one of the first
cable-stayed spans, and was for many years the longest of
this type, in the world. It is part of Quebec Autoroute 19
and is one of the connections between Laval and Montreal,
Quebec, Canada, spanning Rivière des Prairies. It was
fabricated from weathering steel and has an orthotropic
deck. The freeway ends abruptly at the southern end of the
bridge at the intersection of Henri Bourassa Boulevard,
where Autoroute 19 follows Avenue Papineau down to Quebec
Autoroute 40.
The Leblanc portion of the name comes from the name of
a street in Laval that was expropriated to build the
autoroute. That street was named after Alpha Leblanc, a
local landowner. Portions of that street remain on both
sides of the autoroute.
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Viau Bridge
Pont Viau, also called Ahuntsic Bridge
(1930, rebuilt 1962 and widened 1993).
This bridge spans the Rivière des Prairies between the
Montreal borough of Ahuntsic-Cartierville and the Laval (Île
Jésus) neighbourhood of Pont-Viau. It is part of Route 335.
About 36 000 motorists each weekday cross the bridge. The
Société de transport de Laval, has a designated bus lane for
one of its bus routes heading south towards
Henri-Bourassa Terminus Nord and the Henri Bourassa Station
and north towards Cartier Station. The Line 2 Orange of the
Montreal Metro that was extended in 2007 northward to Laval
is backed up with the bus route of the same number (2). On
August 8, 2007, a large hole and crack in the bus-only lane
near the Boulevard des Laurentides (Laval) side of the
bridge brought the complete closure, but an inspection
concluded that the bridge had no structural problems or
damage and was reopened during the same day.
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Bordeaux Railway Bridge
The Bordeaux Railway Bridge is a railway bridge on the
Canadian Pacific Railway line across the Rivière des
Prairies between Ahuntsic-Cartierville, on Montreal Island,
and Laval-des-Rapides, Laval, Quebec, Canada. This bridge is
used by freight trains of the Canadian Pacific Railway
(CPR), the Chemins de Fer Québec-Gatineau (CFQG) and by the
Blainville-Saint-Jerome Line suburban trains of the Agence
métropolitaine de transport (Metropolitan Transportation
Agency).
A four-rail gantlet track still exists on this bridge
because the horizontal structure gauge is not sufficiently
wide for a regular double track.
A recently renovated/rebuilt bicycle/pedestrian bridge
(a greenbridge) is cantilevered on the upstream side of this
bridge.
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Médéric Martin Bridge
Médéric Martin Bridge is a viaduct-type bridge in
Quebec that spans Rivière des Prairies between Montreal and
Laval. It carries 8 lanes of Quebec Autoroute 15, including
1 reserved bus and carpooling lanes.
It was named after Médéric Martin, who was a Member of
Parliament for St. Mary, then Mayor of Montreal. He was a
resident of what is now Laval during his tenure as Mayor.
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Lachapelle Bridge
Lachapelle Bridge, in French Pont Lachapelle, (1930
and 1975) Also known as Cartierville Bridge.
This bridge spans the Rivière des Prairies between the
Montreal borough of Ahuntsic-Cartierville and the Laval (Île
Jésus) neighbourhood of Chomedey.
Actually there are two bridges, side by side and
parallel:
The older (1930) three lane span , on the down stream
side, carries the traffic north into Laval.
The newer (1975) three lane span, on the up stream
side, carries the traffic south into Montreal.
Except for the length and the distance between the
piers, the two spans are not identical.
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Louis Bisson Bridge
Louis Bisson Bridge spans the Rivière des Prairies
between the eastern tip of the former city of Pierrefonds
and the district of Chomedey in Laval. It carries 7 lanes of
Quebec Autoroute 13, including one reversible lane at the
center. That lane is an example of a permanent zipper lane.
The bridge was named after Canadian aviator Louis
Bisson.
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Jacques Bizard Bridge
Jacques Bizard Bridge is a bridge that crosses the
Rivière des Prairies and connects L'Île Bizard to Montreal
Island. Except for a cable ferry that connects Île Bizard
with Laval-sur-le-Lac, it is the only access to Île Bizard,
which had a population of 13,861 as of the 2001 census. It
carries three lanes of Jacques Bizard Boulevard, including
one reversible lane. As of 2008, it is being widened to
accommodate a bicycle path. The ferry, which crosses the
north branch of the Rivière des Prairies, operates only
seasonally between April and November.
The bridge was named after Jacques Bizard, who was
seigneur of Île Bonaventure, which was later renamed after
him as well. The current span was built in 1966
and replaced an old bridge that was built in 1893
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Spanning the Lake of Two Mountains and the Ottawa
River East Channel
The first railway bridge to Montreal Island was the Grand
Trunk Railway bridge across the Ottawa River East Channel.
Along with another bridge built simultaneously across the
West Channel, this bridge provided the first fixed link from
Montreal to the mainland. It was not until 1925, however,
that a fixed road link, formed by Galipeault Bridge and
Taschereau Bridge, was built across the Ottawa River from
Montreal Island. Perrot Island was the only way out of
Montreal to the West before the construction of Île aux
Tourtes Bridge, which goes directly to Vaudreuil across the
Lake of Two Mountains.
All three spans across the Ottawa River East Channel are
twinned by another span, built simultaneously, across the
West Channel.
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Île aux Tourtes Bridge
The Île aux Tourtes Bridge is a bridge on the western
tip of the Island of Montreal, spanning the Lake of Two
Mountains between Senneville, and Vaudreuil-Dorion, Quebec,
Canada. It carries 6 lanes of Autoroute 40 and is the main
link between Montreal and the province of Ontario. At 2 km
in length, it is by far the longest bridge in Quebec to
cross a body of water other than the Saint Lawrence.
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Galipeault Bridge
The Galipeault Bridge is a bridge on the western tip of
the Island of Montreal, spanning the Ottawa River between
Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue and L'Île-Perrot, Quebec, Canada. It
carries four lanes of Autoroute 20, and was named after
Antonin Galipeault, who was minister of public works under
Louis-Alexandre Taschereau. Incidentally, Taschereau
Bridge, along the same highway, was part of the same
project. The first span was built in 1924, a girder
bridge that was replaced in 1991 by another structure of the
same type, using the same foundations. It was doubled in
1964 with a cable-stayed bridge, which carried the
eastbound lanes of Autoroute 20 until its demolition early
in 2008.
The 1964 doubling of the structure was done to appease
business interests in L'Île-Perrot and Dorion, who were
worried that the abandoning of the unfinished Île Bray
Bridge in favor of the nearby Île aux Tourtes Bridge, which
avoids Perrot Island completely, might hurt their
activities. The original plan for a freeway out of Montreal
to the west called for upgrading the highway between
Galipeault and Taschereau bridges to freeway standards, the
doubling of Taschereau, and the construction of a new bridge
in the vicinity of Galipeault, which would have connected
with Autoroute 40 on the Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue side. The
bridge in question, (Île Bray Bridge, which was never
finished), was already under construction when the
transportation ministry changed its plans in favor of a long
span across Lake of Two Mountains.
The 1991 span carried the westbound lanes until the
demolition of the eastbound structure forced its use as a
two-way span. The eastbound span's construction was finished
in early October and opened November 28, 2009.
Like Taschereau, Galipeault was built next to a Grand
Trunk Railroad bridge that was part of the first fixed link
from Montreal to the outside world.
54,000 vehicles use the bridge every day, or 19.7
million a year, making it among the busiest bridges in
Montreal.
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