The La Salle Causeway is a

causeway A causeway is a track, road or railway on the upper point of an embankment across "a low, or wet place, or piece of water". It can be constructed of earth, masonry, wood, or concrete. One of the earliest known wooden causeways is the Sweet Tra ...

that allows Highway 2 to cross the

Cataraqui River The Cataraqui River ( ) forms the lower portion of the Rideau Canal and drains into Lake Ontario at Kingston, Ontario. The name is taken from the original name for Kingston, Ontario; its exact meaning, however, is undetermined. Early maps showed ...

(the southern entrance of the

Rideau Canal The Rideau Canal, also known unofficially as the Rideau Waterway, connects Canada's capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, to Lake Ontario and the Saint Lawrence River at Kingston. It is 202 kilometres long. The name ''Rideau'', French for "curtain", ...

) at

Kingston, Ontario Kingston is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located on the north-eastern end of Lake Ontario, at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River and at the mouth of the Cataraqui River (south end of the Rideau Canal). The city is midway between Toro ...

. The causeway separates Kingston's

inner Interior may refer to: Arts and media * ''Interior'' (Degas) (also known as ''The Rape''), painting by Edgar Degas * ''Interior'' (play), 1895 play by Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck * ''The Interior'' (novel), by Lisa See * Interior de ...

and outer harbours. Construction of the causeway was completed on April 15, 1917. Three bridges are incorporated into the causeway, the centre one being a Strauss

trunnion A trunnion (from Old French "''trognon''", trunk) is a cylindrical protrusion used as a mounting or pivoting point. First associated with cannons, they are an important military development. Alternatively, a trunnion is a shaft that positions a ...

bascule lift bridge, which was designed by Joseph Strauss, who designed the

Golden Gate Bridge The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The structure links the U.S. city of San Francisco, California—the northern tip of the San Francisco Pen ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. The La Salle Causeway was named after

René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (; November 22, 1643 – March 19, 1687), was a 17th-century French explorer and fur trader in North America. He explored the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, the Mississippi River, ...

. who oversaw the construction of

Fort Frontenac Fort Frontenac was a French trading post and military fort built in July 1673 at the mouth of the Cataraqui River where the St. Lawrence River leaves Lake Ontario (at what is now the western end of the La Salle Causeway), in a location tradition ...

in 1673 at what is now the western end of the causeway.

History

The first attempt at transportation across the river was a cable-operated

scow A scow is a smaller type of barge. Some scows are rigged as sailing scows. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, scows carried cargo in coastal waters and inland waterways, having an advantage for navigating shallow water or small harbours. S ...

type of

ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...

that began operating in 1786. Two rowboats were often available for use as well. In 1826, the Cataraqui Bridge Company was formed to build a wooden bridge "1800 feet long by 25 feet wide and built on stone piers" (549 × 7.6 m).Armstrong 1973, P. 168 The Cataraqui Bridge was opened in 1829.Armstrong 1973, P. 168 Tolls were collected from a toll booth on the west end of the bridge, and since pedestrians were charged a penny, the bridge was popularly known as the "Penny Bridge." A

drawbridge A drawbridge or draw-bridge is a type of moveable bridge typically at the entrance to a castle or tower surrounded by a moat. In some forms of English, including American English, the word ''drawbridge'' commonly refers to all types of moveable ...

allowed larger vessels to pass through but was eventually replaced by an easier-to-operate

swing bridge A swing bridge (or swing span bridge) is a movable bridge that has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its center of gravity, about which the swing span (turning span) can then pi ...

. In 1917, the Penny Bridge was replaced by the causeway which included three bridges: two bridges at each end of the causeway, and the centre lift bridge. Only the original centre lift bridge remains since the steel bridges at the east and the west ends of the causeway were replaced with concrete bridges in 1962 and 1993, respectively.Vintage Kingston - History of the LaSalle Causeway
Retrieved 2016-02-05

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * Armstrong, Alvin. ''Buckskin to Broadloom - Kingston Grows Up''. Kingston Whig-Standard, 1973. No ISBN. * Mika, Nick and Helma et al. ''Kingston, Historic City''. Belleville: Mika Publishing Co., 1987. . {{Coord, 44, 14, 4.8, N, 76, 28, 28.5, W, type:landmark, display=title Causeways in Canada Bridges completed in 1917 Road bridges in Ontario Transport in Kingston, Ontario Buildings and structures in Kingston, Ontario Former toll bridges in Canada

History

See also

References