Reversing Falls Railway Bridge

The Reversing Falls Railway Bridge is the name given to two different steel truss bridges crossing the Saint John River at the same location in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.

The original bridge was constructed in 1885 immediately upstream of a highway crossing known as the Reversing Falls Bridge. Measuring 372 metres (1,220 ft) in length, the railway bridge carried a single-track main line.

It was constructed by the Saint John Bridge and Railroad Extension Company which was a municipal-owned corporation established to connect two separated sections of the former European and North American Railway project. The eastern section of the E&NAR was merged into the Intercolonial Railway following Confederation while the western section was acquired by the New Brunswick Railway (NBR). The Saint John Bridge and Railroad Extension Company was acquired by the NBR following the construction of the bridge. The NBR was purchased by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1890.

A replacement structure keeping much of the same design was opened in 1922 to accommodate heavier loads; the original being demolished in 1921.

In 1976 NB Power constructed the Lorneville Pipeline from Irving Oil's Canaport supertanker oil terminal at Red Head, 4 km (2.5 mi) southeast of the city to the Coleson Cove Generating Station, 16 km (9.9 mi) southwest of the city; it crosses the Saint John River using this bridge.

The City of Saint John also uses the bridge to carry water supply pipes.

The railway bridge is currently owned and operated by the New Brunswick Southern Railway, following CPR's sale of its Canadian Atlantic Railway subsidiary in 1995.

Coordinates: 45°15′35″N 66°05′13″W / 45.2597°N 66.087°W / 45.2597; -66.087

Famous quotes containing the words reversing, falls, railway and/or bridge:

    Deafness produces bizarre effects, reversing the natural order of things; the interchange of letters is the conversation of the deaf, and the only link with society. I would be in despair, for instance, over seeing you speak, but, instead, I am only too happy to hear you write.
    Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)

    Perhaps you can tell me why in this country nobody ever does anything. Nobody ever writes any music or starts any revolutions or falls in love. All anybody ever does is to get drunk and tell smutty stories.
    John Dos Passos (1896–1970)

    Her personality had an architectonic quality; I think of her when I see some of the great London railway termini, especially St. Pancras, with its soot and turrets, and she overshadowed her own daughters, whom she did not understand—my mother, who liked things to be nice; my dotty aunt. But my mother had not the strength to put even some physical distance between them, let alone keep the old monster at emotional arm’s length.
    Angela Carter (1940–1992)

    Crime seems to change character when it crosses a bridge or a tunnel. In the city, crime is taken as emblematic of class and race. In the suburbs, though, it’s intimate and psychological—resistant to generalization, a mystery of the individual soul.
    Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)