Jacques Cartier Bridge

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**Jacques Cartier Bridge**

Carries	5 lanes of Quebec route 134
Crosses	St. Lawrence River
Locale	Longueuil, Quebec and Montreal, Quebec
Maintained by	The Jacques Cartier and Champlain Bridges Incorporated
Design	Cantilever bridge
Longest span	334.35 meters
Total length	2,687.42 meters
Opening date	May 14, 1930

View from the 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.

Together with the Champlain Bridge, it is administered by The Jacques Cartier and Champlain Bridges Inc., a federal agency.

The Story Bridge, in Brisbane, Australia, was modelled on the design of Jacques Cartier Bridge.

1 Specifications
- 1.1 Events
- 1.2 Disruptions
2 See also
3 External links

[edit] Specifications

Construction was undertaken in 1925 and completed in 1930. It was opened to traffic on May 14th. 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. It was originally designed as a road, tramway, and pedestrian bridge. The tramway tracks were removed in 1959. It is now a five-lane highway bridge of 3,400 m (11,236 ft) in length including the approach viaducts. There are approximately 43 million vehicle crossings annually, making it the second busiest bridge in Canada, first being the Champlain Bridge, also in Montreal.

Length of bridge structure: 2,687.42 m
Length of main bridge: 590.35 m
- Length of centre span: 334.35 m
- Span lengths of support structures 128.00 m each

This bridge follows the general design concept of the Quebec Bridge.

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.

There is a 8-foot wide bike path and sidewalk on both sides of this bridge. The bike path is part of the Route Verte bike path network. The sidewalk has a suicide barrier.

[edit] Events

The bridge is completely closed to traffic due to the fireworks competition at La Ronde. It becomes entirely pedestrian, sometimes drawing crowds of 50,000+.

[edit] Disruptions

Recently, this bridge has been shut down several times due to several protesters who have individually climbed on the superstructure of the bridge or on a sign in the Longueuil side of the bridge. Two of them were from the Fathers for Justice militant group, while a third claimed he was part of the group. Recently, a man wearing a Canadian flag climbed the structure of the bridge. Most of the protests led to massive traffic congestions during rush hour.