The Pretoria Bridge is a

table Table may refer to: * Table (furniture), a piece of furniture with a flat surface and one or more legs * Table (landform), a flat area of land * Table (information), a data arrangement with rows and columns * Table (database), how the table data ...

bridge in

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

, Ontario, Canada. It crosses 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", ...

linking

the Glebe The Glebe is a neighbourhood in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is located just south of Ottawa's downtown area in the Capital Ward. According to the Glebe Community Association, the neighbourhood is bounded on the north by the Queensway, on the ...

and

Centretown Centretown is a neighbourhood in Somerset Ward, in central Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is defined by the city as "the area bounded on the north by Gloucester Street and Lisgar Street, on the east by the Rideau Canal, on the south by the Quee ...

Old Ottawa East Old Ottawa East or just Ottawa East (''Vieil Ottawa Est'' in French) is a neighbourhood in Capital Ward in central Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is located south of Nicholas Street and between the Rideau Canal and the Rideau River, with Avenue R ...

. The bridge was built in 1915, replacing an earlier wooden

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 ...

on Argyle Street just to the north. It is a table bridge, meaning that the central portion of the bridge can be elevated to allow boats to pass underneath. Although built by the Strauss Bascule Bridge Company, the moveable span is not a bascule type but a table-type. In the late 1970s it was discovered that

road salt Sodium chloride , commonly known as salt (although sea salt also contains other chemical salts), is an ionic compound with the chemical formula NaCl, representing a 1:1 ratio of sodium and chloride ions. With molar masses of 22.99 and 35.45 g ...

had seriously damaged the bridge. Proposals were advanced to build a larger and higher bridge, but these were opposed by those who saw the bridge as a heritage structure. Eventually it was decided to rebuild the bridge almost exactly as it had been before. The bridge shares its name with nearby Pretoria Avenue. Pretoria Avenue, formerly Jane Street, was renamed in 1902 to commemorate the British victory in the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sout ...

and those Canadians that had served. The name comes from the captured Boer capital,

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...

. The name later become controversial as most Canadians associated it with the

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

regime in South Africa. In the late 1980s a movement was launched to rename the bridge after

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1 ...

. This was opposed by others who felt it was an important monument to Canadians who had fought in South Africa. City council refused to get involved and the proposal eventually died.

References

*"The battle of Pretoria Bridge." Dan Turner. ''The Ottawa Citizen.'' Ottawa, Ont.: Oct 16, 1988. pg. E.1 *"Pretoria Bridge: Rewriting name ignores history." Gene Bodzin. ''The Ottawa Citizen.'' Ottawa, Ont.: Mar 26, 1990. pg. A.8

External links

* {{Commons category-inline, Pretoria Bridge Bridges completed in 1915 Bridges in Ottawa Road bridges in Ontario Vertical lift bridges in Canada 1915 establishments in Ontario