«Le pont de Québec est un pont mixte ferroviaire et routier qui traverse le fleuve Saint-Laurent à l'ouest de la ville de Québec (rive nord) jusqu'à Lévis (quartier Saint-Nicolas) sur la rive sud. C'est une structure rivetée d'acier-botte de 987 m de long, 28,7 m de large et 104 m de haut. Chaque envergure en porte-à-faux est de 178 m. C'est le pont de type porte-à-faux ayant la plus longue portée libre au monde, avec 549 mètres entre ses piliers principaux et sa travée centrale longue de 576 mètres. Il est encore considéré aujourd'hui comme une œuvre majeure d'ingénierie. Il est situé en aval du Pont Pierre-Laporte.
Le pont de Québec est la propriété de la compagnie ferroviaire Canadien National (CN).
Le premier pont fut déclaré Monument historique international le 23 mai 1987 par les Sociétés canadienne et américaine des ingénieurs civils (CSCE et ACSE), et fut le quatrième ouvrage de génie civil à recevoir cet honneur. Le 24 novembre 1995, le pont fut inclus dans la liste des lieux historiques nationaux du Canada.
Le pont est toujours la propriété du transporteur ferroviaire Canadien National (CN), qui fut privatisé durant les années 19902. Il reçoit cependant des fonds des gouvernements fédéral et provincial pour les réparations et l'entretien de la structure.»
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Quebec Bridge
"The Quebec Bridge (Pont de Québec in French) is a road, rail and pedestrian bridge across the lower Saint Lawrence River to the west of Quebec City, and Lévis, Quebec, Canada.
The Quebec Bridge is a riveted steel truss structure and is 987 m (3,239 ft) long, 29 m (94 ft) wide, and 104 m (340 ft) high. Cantilever arms 177 m (580 ft) long support a 195 m (640 ft) central structure, for a total span of 549 m (1800 ft), still the longest cantilever bridge span in the world (it was the all-categories longest span in the world until the Ambassador Bridge was completed in 1929). It is the easternmost (farthest downstream) complete crossing of the Saint Lawrence.
The bridge accommodates three highway lanes (none until 1929, one until 1949, two until 1993), one rail line (two until 1949), and a pedestrian walkway (originally two); at one time it also carried a streetcar line. It has been owned by the Canadian National Railway since 1993.
The bridge was built and designed primarily as a railway bridge, but the streetcar lines and one of the two railway tracks were converted into automobile and pedestrian/cycling lanes in subsequent years. In 1970 the Pierre Laporte Suspension Bridge opened just upstream to accommodate freeway traffic on Autoroute 73.
The Quebec Bridge was declared a historic monument in 1987 by the Canadian and American Society of Civil Engineers, and on January 24, 1996, the bridge was declared a National Historic Site of Canada.
The bridge was built as part of the National Transcontinental Railway, which was merged into the Canadian Government Railways and later became part of the Canadian National Railway (CN). The Canadian Government Railways company was maintained by the federal government until 1993, when a Privy Council order dated July 22 authorized the sale of Canadian Government Railways to the Crown corporation CN for one dollar (CAD). On this date, the Quebec Bridge also came under complete ownership of CN. CN was privatized in November 1995, making the bridge privately owned.
Despite its private ownership, CN receives federal and provincial funding to undertake repairs and maintenance on the structure.
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