McNamee/Priceville Footbridge is the longest () suspension

footbridge A footbridge (also a pedestrian bridge, pedestrian overpass, or pedestrian overcrossing) is a bridge designed solely for pedestrians.''Oxford English Dictionary'' While the primary meaning for a bridge is a structure which links "two points at a ...

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. It spans the Southwest Miramichi River at McNamee, approximately 12 km west of Doaktown, New Brunswick.New Brunswick- Nova Scotia Cable and Rope Suspension Footbridges ()

History

The original Priceville footbridge was constructed in 1938 with a single span but the bridge was wrecked during the spring freshet of 1939 with three lives lost. This tragic accident was the reason for Thomas Wilson of McNamee being awarded the Carnegie Medal for Bravery that year and the following quote is from the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission website

: Thomas Wilson saved Lawrence R. Price from drowning, Priceville, New Brunswick, May 10, 1939. While Price, 27, laborer, was crossing the Miramichi River on a wire-cable footbridge, one of four cables sustaining the bridge broke. The center portion of the bridge was all or partly submerged. Price, who was 245 feet from the bank, became entangled in wire netting that formed a side of the bridge, only his head being above the surface. The water was deep; and there was a current of eight m.p.h., with swells a foot and a half high extending 19 feet from the bridge. Wilson, 32, guide, walked on the bridge for 65 feet; but fearing his weight might cause the bridge to sink farther, he returned to the bank. At Wilson's urging another man accompanied him in two attempts in a boat to reach Price, but each time they were prevented by the current. There was a general fear that the bridge would collapse. Another man replaced Wilson's companion; and they made two trips to the bridge, on the second attempt reaching it 125 feet from the bank. Wilson then got hold of a cable, and with his hands and by means of a boat-hook he pulled the boat 120 feet to Price. Pulling the bow of the boat onto the cable, Wilson got out of the boat, stood on one cable and held to another, and by means of pliers cut the netting around Price. With Wilson's aid Price crawled through the hole and into the boat, which was paddled to the bank. A second bridge was built in 1939 and replaced by a third footbridge in 1988 which remains in use to this day. The two latter bridges, unlike the original, used two spans to cross the river and the bridge is now provincially owned and maintained by the

New Brunswick Department of Transportation The Department of Transportation is a part of the Government of New Brunswick. It is charged with the maintenance of the provincial highway network and the management of the province's automobile fleet. The department was established in 1967 when ...

References

{{coord , 46.51110, N, 66.28498, W, display=title Bridges in New Brunswick Suspension bridges in Canada Pedestrian bridges in Canada Transport in Northumberland County, New Brunswick Buildings and structures in Northumberland County, New Brunswick Bridges completed in 1939 Bridges completed in 1988