hISTORY

Early in 1903 the engineers of the Calgary and Edmonton Railway (C & ER), which had reached Strathcona in 1891, began surveys for a possible crossing of the North Saskatchewan River to reach Edmonton. In early May of 1903 the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) purchased the C & ER so any new railroad bridge would be built by CPR.

Negotiations among CPR, Edmonton, Strathcona and Alberta were lengthy and it was not until November 30, 1909 that an agreement was signed. Initial plans called merely for a railway bridge but Strathcona pushed for a combined rail and road bridge. The final agreement included a road and sidewalk deck below the railroad and two streetcar tracks on either side of the CPR track.

Construction for the 62 foundations of the land piers and four river piers began on August 14, 1910. Construction of the piers was completed in 1911 and erection of the steel commenced almost immediately from the south side. Early in 1913 the steel reached the north side. On June 2, 1913 the first CPR passenger train steamed into Edmonton over the newly completed structure. The first streetcar crossed the bridge on August 11, 1913. CPR blocked road traffic for two weeks after the lower road deck was completed, due to a dispute over unpaid costs.

A CPR steam train traverses the High Level Bridge on its way to Calgary.

Edmonton 40 starts across The High Level Bridge northbound on the "wrong side".

A few years after single-ended streetcars (which only had doors on their right side, rather than on both sides), crossover tracks were installed at both approaches to the bridge so that when passengers had to exit a disabled streetcar on the bridge, they could alight on to the centre of the bridge rather than stepping out into space!

Streetcar traffic across the bridge was terminated on September 2, 1951 with the abandonment of the streetcar system. After a few years, the streetcar tracks across the bridge were removed, while the railway track saw further use until the 1980s. Luckily, the CPR track and the poles for the streetcar overhead wires were never removed; both are now used by the High Level Bridge Streetcars (although ERRS volunteers needed to install new electric lines).

Museum streetcar service across the bridge from Strathcona to Grandin (now Government Centre) started in 1997, with an extension opened to Jasper Avenue in 2005. The High Level Bridge Streetcar service operates from May until October and carries over 90,000 passengers per year (as of 2019).