The Lillooet Suspension Bridge, also known as the Lillooet Old Bridge, is a
suspension bridge
A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck (bridge), deck is hung below suspension wire rope, cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridg ...
located in
Lillooet,
British Columbia. The bridge passes over the
Fraser River
The Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of Vancouver. The river's annual d ...
and connects the town of Lillooet with
British Columbia Highway 99.
History
The Lillooet Suspension Bridge was constructed in 1913, replacing a truss bridge that was completed in 1889, which itself replaced a reaction-cable ferry known as
Miller's Ferry A series of ferries and bridges have crossed the Fraser River in the vicinity of Lillooet in the Squamish-Lillooet region of southwestern British Columbia. From the 1850s, these crossings have connected both north–south and local traffic.
Ferry ...
, which had operated between 1860 and 1888. The suspension bridge carried one lane of vehicle traffic until the completion of the
Bridge of the Twenty-Three Camels in 1981. When the new highway bridge opened, the much older suspension bridge was called "The Old Bridge" by locals.
In 2003, the District of Lillooet and the British Columbia Ministry of Transportation restored the bridge as a pedestrian-only crossing. The Lillooet Naturalist Society also advocated for the installation
bat houses on the structure as a part of the restoration project.
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See also
* List of crossings of the Fraser River
This is a list of bridges, tunnels, and other crossings of the Fraser River in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It includes both functional crossings and historic crossings which no longer exist, and lists them in sequence from the South ...
* List of bridges in Canada
References
Bridges over the Fraser River
Fraser Canyon
Lillooet Country
Pedestrian bridges in Canada
Road bridges in British Columbia
Suspension bridges in Canada
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