The Perley Bridge was a bridge connecting

Hawkesbury, Ontario Hawkesbury is a town along the Ottawa River in the United Counties of Prescott and Russell in Eastern Ontario, Canada. Hawkesbury is the third most bilingual town in Ontario, with about 70% of its inhabitants being fluent in English and French. ...

and

Grenville, Quebec Grenville () is a village municipality in the Argenteuil Regional County Municipality of the Laurentides region of Quebec, Canada. It is located opposite Hawkesbury, Ontario, on the Ottawa River. History Although Grenville was already shown ...

. It crossed the

Ottawa River The Ottawa River (, ) is a river in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. It is named after the Algonquin word "to trade", as it was the major trade route of Eastern Canada at the time. For most of its length, it defines the border betw ...

via

Chenail Island Chenail Island (officially in ) is an uninhabited island in the Ottawa River of Ontario, Canada. It is part of the town of Hawkesbury, Ontario, and across the river from Grenville, Quebec. The only road on the island, the four-lane St. John St ...

. It was named for George Perley, Canadian Member of Parliament representing the Argenteuil district in southern Quebec. He first advocated for a crossing at Hawkesbury in 1909. The bridge was known as the Hawkesbury–Grenville Bridge, or less frequently the Grenville–Hawkesbury Bridge prior to its completion in 1931 when the name Perley was applied. It was replaced by the Long-Sault Bridge in 1998.

Early history

The towns began to request the bridge in 1908, with initial survey work done in 1910. The bridge was designed by 1914, however no agreement was reached between the national government and the two provinces on how the cost would be shared. The project was put aside due to

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and not revived until 1923. By then, the design needed to be revised to meet contemporary construction standards. Redesign work was completed in 1924, but construction would wait a further six years. Bids for the fabrication of the bridge superstructure were not solicited until July 1930. It was completed in 1931, at a cost of approximately $500,000, opening to traffic on October 21. The steel was fabricated by the Canadian Bridge Company of

Walkerville, Ontario Walkerville, Ontario, is a former town in Canada, that is today a heritage precinct of Windsor, Ontario. The town was founded by Hiram Walker in 1890, owner and producer of Canadian Club Whisky. Walker planned it as a 'model town’, (originally ...

and the

general contractor A contractor (North American English) or builder (British English), is responsible for the day-to-day oversight of a construction site, management of vendors and trades, and the communication of information to all involved parties throughout the c ...

was Farley & Grant. The bridge was in length (measured between

abutments An abutment is the Bridge#Structure types, substructure at the ends of a bridge Span (architecture), span or dam supporting its Bridge#Structure types, superstructure. Single-span bridges have abutments at each end that provide vertical and l ...

) and included 34 different spans, 27 of which were trestle spans over the shallower area on either end. The others were five longer

deck truss A truss bridge is a bridge whose load-bearing superstructure is composed of a truss, a structure of connected elements, usually forming triangular units. The connected elements, typically straight, may be stressed from tension, compression, or s ...

spans set on piers in deeper water, one

through truss A truss bridge is a bridge whose load-bearing superstructure is composed of a truss, a structure of connected elements, usually forming triangular units. The connected elements, typically straight, may be stressed from tension, compression, or s ...

which gave the maximum clearance over the navigation channel near the middle of the river, and one

bowstring truss A truss bridge is a bridge whose load-bearing superstructure is composed of a truss, a structure of connected elements, usually forming triangular units. The connected elements, typically straight, may be stressed from tension, compression, or s ...

over the

Carillon Canal The Carillon Canal is a National Historic Site of Canada in Saint-André-d'Argenteuil, Quebec. It preserves the historic Carillon Canal that was first built in the 1830s to facilitate travel on the Ottawa River. It is a prominent heritage site a ...

. The roadway was wide and carried one traffic lane in each direction, with an additional sidewalk on one side. All piers were set on

bedrock In geology, bedrock is solid rock that lies under loose material ( regolith) within the crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface material. An exposed portion of bed ...

Dedication

A dedication ceremony was held on the day of opening, with remarks by Hugh Stewart, the Canadian

Minister of Public Works This list indicates government departments in various countries dedicated to public works or infrastructure. See also * Public works * Ministry or Board of Public Works, the imperial Chinese ministry overseeing public projects from the Tang ...

and a

ribbon cutting An opening ceremony, grand opening, or ribbon-cutting ceremony marks the official opening of a newly constructed location or the start of an event.

by the wife of the bridge's namesake, George Perley. The bridge was blessed by the

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

Archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...

of Ottawa. The mayors of Hawkesbury and Grenville both spoke. The ceremony was preceded by parades from each town to the center of the bridge, where a special

pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings; * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

and been constructed. Also present were Perley,

Élie-Oscar Bertrand Élie-Oscar Bertrand (March 3, 1894 – October 21, 1980) was a businessman and political figure in Ontario, Canada. Bertrand represented Prescott in the House of Commons of Canada as a Liberal member from 1929 to 1949. He was born in L' ...

MP of

Prescott Prescott may refer to: People Given name * Prescott E. Bloom, American lawyer and politician * Prescott Bush, American banker and politician * Samuel Prescott Bush, American industrialist * Prescott F. Hall, American lawyer, author and eugenicist ...

, and other government officials. Both Hawkesbury and Grenville declared the half-day starting at noon to be a holiday.

Trans-Canada Highway

In 1940, the proposed route of the

Trans-Canada highway The Trans-Canada Highway (Canadian French, French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the A ...

in eastern Ontario ran from Ottawa on

Highway 17 Route 17, or Highway 17 can refer to the following roads: For the roads named "A17", see list of A17 roads. International * European route E17 * European route E017 Australia * Brisbane Valley Highway, Queensland * D'Aguilar Highway, Queensl ...

to Hawkesbury and then across the bridge and on into Quebec. The highway was not formally enacted until 1949. Today, it traverses the area farther south on Highway 417 and crosses the river via the

Île aux Tourtes Bridge Ile or ILE may refer to: Ile * Ile, a Puerto Rican singer * Ile District (disambiguation), multiple places * Ilé-Ifẹ̀, an ancient Yoruba city in south-western Nigeria * Interlingue (ISO 639:ile), a planned language * Isoleucine, an amino ac ...

outside

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Reconstruction

Little was done to the bridge except routine maintenance such as painting until 1961, when a major modification occurred and the bridge was raised . This was necessary to maintain a navigational clearance of after the construction of the dam at the

Carillon Generating Station The Carillon generating station (in French: ''centrale de Carillon'') is a hydroelectricity, hydroelectric power station on the Ottawa River near Carillon, Quebec, Carillon, Quebec, Canada. Built between 1959 and 1964, it is managed and operated ...

, a

hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other Renewable energ ...

power station that was built between 1959 and 1964 approximately downstream from the bridge. Upon completion, the dam raised the water level by over at the bridge. The six truss spans in the center of the bridge were jacked higher by the

Dominion Bridge Company The Dominion Bridge Company, Limited was a Canadian steel bridge constructor originally based in Lachine, Quebec. From the core business of steel bridge component fabrication, the company diversified into related areas such as the fabrication of ...

. In preparation, the bridge was restricted to one lane for two months. Then, on December 13, all traffic was halted for 19 hours when the bridge was raised and then reopened to traffic. The bridge lighting was upgraded in 1965 with 250-watt mercury lamps. Maintenance of other inter-province bridges is shared by the national government and the provinces, each paying one-third of the cost. However, since Quebec paid a large share of the original construction cost, it was not responsible for maintenance. Ontario paid 25% of the costs, while Canada paid the remainder.

Deterioration

The bridge was painted twice after the reconstruction, in 1963 and again in 1972–73. On March 4, 1973, a corner of one of the south trestle spans failed, dropping the roadway several inches. The bridge was quickly repaired and reopened to all traffic three days later. The failure led to an assessment of the safety of the bridge that began in 1973 by

Public Works Canada Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC; ),''Public Services and Procurement Canada'' is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of Public Works and Government Services (). formerly Public Works ...

, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, and an Ottawa consulting engineer firm, M.M. Dillon Ltd. Underwater inspection determined the piers were in good condition. The above-water superstructure, made mostly from open hearth steel was found to have many areas of severe

corrosion Corrosion is a natural process that converts a refined metal into a more chemically stable oxide. It is the gradual deterioration of materials (usually a metal) by chemical or electrochemical reaction with their environment. Corrosion engine ...

and

metal fatigue In materials science, fatigue is the initiation and propagation of cracks in a material due to cyclic loading. Once a fatigue crack has initiated, it grows a small amount with each loading cycle, typically producing striation (fatigue), striati ...

, including bearings, connecting angles, floor beams (some had been reduced in size by 50%), steel decking,

expansion joints A expansion joint, or movement joint, is an assembly designed to hold parts together while safely absorbing temperature-induced expansion and contraction of building materials. They are commonly found between sections of buildings, bridges, si ...

, and

railing Railing or railings may refer to: * Railings (horse), a racehorse * Guard rail, a structure blocking an area from access ** Cable railings, a type of guard rail * Handrail, a structure designed to provide support on or near a staircase * Grab bar, ...

. The study also looked at traffic and determined 11,000 to 12,000 vehicles crossed the bridge on average summer weekdays, 20% to 30% of which were trucks, including heavy

logging truck A logging truck or timber lorry is a large truck used to carry logs. Some have integrated flatbeds, some are discrete tractor units, and some are configured to spread a load between the tractor unit and a dollied trailer pulled behind it. Oft ...

s delivering timber from Quebec to a Hawkesbury

paper mill A paper mill is a factory devoted to making paper from vegetable fibres such as wood pulp, old rags, and other ingredients. Prior to the invention and adoption of the Fourdrinier machine and other types of paper machine that use an endless belt ...

, as well as various other kinds of heavy loads. It concluded that the bridge was carrying loads much in excess of is designed capacity. Work was performed at the time to strengthen the structure so that it would support loads. The work included various reinforcements and strengthening of the structure, including adding braces and replacing some

rivets A rivet is a permanent mechanical fastener. Before being installed, a rivet consists of a smooth cylindrical shaft with a head on one end. The end opposite the head is called the ''tail''. On installation, the deformed end is called the ''sh ...

with high-strength

bolt Bolt or bolts may refer to: Implements and technology ''Etymology: "to strike", see for example Thunderbolt'' * Bolt (fastener), a threaded shaft, used to clamp two components together * Bolt (climbing), an anchor point used in rock climbing * ...

s, and was considered a "short-term" solution. On October 22, 1974, signs were posted restricting loads to and a control station on the Quebec side enforced this weight limit. After three months the Quebec government stopped staffing the control station, leading an MP to question if the bridge would last another three to five years. One $280,000 repair was made in 1975. Other repairs were completed in 1978 and 1979. The Marshall Steel Company of

Laval, Quebec Laval is a city in Quebec, Canada. It is in the southwest of the province, north of Montreal. It is the largest suburb of Montreal, the third-largest city in the province after Montreal and Quebec City, and the thirteenth largest city in Can ...

was awarded one contract for over $740,000 to strengthen trusses on the bridge. Long-term upgrades were needed to achieve a load capacity of . One option considered was using the bridge for automobile traffic only and building a new bridge for heavy truck traffic. The other option was to upgrade the bridge to be able to carry heavy truck traffic on one lane and building a new bridge that would also have one lane for truck and another for cars. Total replacement was not considered because of the perceived value of the existing bridge. However, it was reported as early as 1974 that Public Works Canada felt a new bridge was considered necessary. At the time, an agreement for funding a new bridge could not be reached by the three involved governments.

Replacement

Corrosion in a section of the deck that had been rehabilitated in 1979 was observed in 1985. In 1986, agreement was reached by the Ottawa and Quebec provincial representatives and

Don Boudria Don Boudria (born August 30, 1949) is a former Canadian politician and current senior associate at Sandstone Group, an Ottawa-based executive advisory firm. He served in the House of Commons of Canada from 1984 to 2006 as a member of the Libera ...

, MP for Glengarry–Prescott–Russell to support total replacement of the bridge, as had been sought by the Grenville and Hawkesbury municipal governments. Boudria said the bridge was in "a deplorable condition". The Perley bridge was demolished in 1999 after the replacement bridge, built to the west, was opened. Sections of the deck repaired in 1979 were cut out and transported to the laboratories of the Institute for Research in Construction (IRC) at the

National Research Council (Canada) The National Research Council Canada (NRC; ) is the primary national agency of the Government of Canada dedicated to science and technology research and development. It is the largest federal research and development organization in Canada. Th ...

, and the

U.S. Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and energy production, the research and development of nuclear power, the military's nuclear we ...

's (DOE)

Albany Research Center The Albany Research Center, now part of National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), is a U.S. Department of Energy laboratory staffed by Federal employees and contractors located in Albany, Oregon. Founded in 1943, the laboratory initially speci ...

for further examination. At the IRC, corrosion of epoxy-coated-rebar was studied by

half-cell In electrochemistry, a half-cell is a structure that contains a conductive electrode and a surrounding conductive electrolyte separated by a naturally occurring Helmholtz double layer. Chemical reactions within this layer momentarily pump electri ...

potential,

linear polarization In electrodynamics, linear polarization or plane polarization of electromagnetic radiation is a confinement of the electric field vector or magnetic field vector to a given plane along the direction of propagation. The term ''linear polarizati ...

, and concrete

resistivity Electrical resistivity (also called volume resistivity or specific electrical resistance) is a fundamental specific property of a material that measures its electrical resistance or how strongly it resists electric current. A low resistivity i ...

measurement. At the DOE,

scanning electron microscopy A scanning electron microscope (SEM) is a type of electron microscope that produces images of a sample by scanning the surface with a focused beam of electrons. The electrons interact with atoms in the sample, producing various signals that ...

and

X-ray An X-ray (also known in many languages as Röntgen radiation) is a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than those of ultraviolet rays and longer than those of gamma rays. Roughly, X-rays have a wavelength ran ...

wavelength analysis were used, with results analyzed by the

University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a Public university, public research university located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is on of land adjacent to uptown Waterloo and Waterloo Park. The university also op ...

. A study determined that epoxy-coated-rebar, which was expected to greatly extend the life of the bridge deck, in fact offered only 1–4 years more protection than uncoated rebar.

Cultural

The bridge has more closely joined Hawkesbury, with an 86% French-speaking population, and Grenville.

References

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Newspapers.com Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites. It is owned by The ...

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{{free access {{cite report, last1=Hansson, first1=C.M., last2=Haas, first2=R., last3=Green, first3=R., last4=Evers, first4=R.C., last5=Gepraegs, first5=O.K., last6=Al Asssar, first6=R., title=Corrosion Protection Strategies for Ministry Bridges, publisher=University of Waterloo, date=July 31, 2000, url=https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/38181797/corrosion-protection-strategies-for-ministry-bridges-mmfx, accessdate=December 3, 2016 {{cite journal, title=IRC evaluates corrosion in repaired concrete bridge slabs, journal=Construction Innovation, date=Winter 2001, volume=6, issue=1, page=8, url=http://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2008/nrc-cnrc/NR25-1-6-1E.pdf, accessdate=4 December 2016, publisher=Institute for Research in Construction, location=Ottawa, Ontario {{cite web, title=Linked Parliamentary Data – Feb 12, 1975, url=http://www.lipad.ca/full/1975/02/12/11/, website=www.lipad.ca, publisher=University of Toronto, accessdate=4 December 2016 {{cite journal, title=Trans Canada Highway, journal=The Canadian Engineer Roads and Bridges, date=1940, volume=78, pages=110, publisher=Monetary Times Print Company Bridges completed in 1931 Bridges over the Ottawa River Buildings and structures in Laurentides Former bridges in Canada Hawkesbury, Ontario Road bridges in Ontario Road bridges in Quebec Transport in Laurentides Truss bridges in Canada Buildings and structures demolished in 1999