Designated M060 - MAGAGUADAVIC RIVER BRIDGE #1, this Pratt Through Truss bridge was built in 1908, making it the second oldest of the 7 current bridges spanning the Magaguadavic River, the oldest being M072 - MAGAGUADAVIC RIVER BRIDGE #7, built in 1905. This is also the final highway crossing of the Magaguadavic River before it empties into Passamaquoddy Bay about 6 kilometres to the west. Downriver about 350 metres is what was once the final highway crossing, a single lane Camelback truss bridge, now repurposed as a walking path footbridge.
About 36 metres (125 feet) in length, with a 15-16 metre (50-55 foot) steel girder approach span on its west end, the bridge rests on a concrete pier in the river on its west end while the outer ends of the bridge and approach span rest on concrete abutments on each riverbank.
The New Brunswick Department of Transportation and Infrastructure's
bridge health report gives the bridge a Bridge Condition Index (BCI) of 60 out of a possible 100. Not bad for a centenarian. The posted load limit for the bridge is 12 tonnes per vehicle or 8 tonnes per axle.
Immediately downriver from the bridge is the 1902
St. George Pulp and Paper Dam, now a 15 megawatt hydro dam. Interestingly, this dam is the site of the
WORLD’S FIRST Artificial Fishway, a fish ladder built in 1928 to allow Atlantic salmon and other fish to pass upriver to spawn after the dam at St. George had blocked their access. The ladder consists of a series of 43 pools which are filled from the top of the dam. The water flows down from pool to pool while the salmon swim and jump upstream from pool to pool. The Fish Ladder has been designated a
New Brunswick Historic Place.
Incidentally, there's a benchmark,
BM NBDPW, on the bridge's approach span, in the top of the concrete end post at the northwest corner of the bridge.