This 942 foot long covered timber truss bridge was originally known as Similkameen River Bridge No. 6. Built as a railroad bridge by the Victoria, Vancouver and Eastern Railroad, a subsidiary of the Great Northern Railroad, in 1907, it is comprised of three separate spans and came into use in December of 1909. It became part of the historic Kettle Valley Railway, which was completed in this area in 1915.
In 1972, the Burlington Northern Railroad, then owner of the railway, abandoned the tracks, pulled them up and departed, leaving behind the last five of what were originally six bridges on the line which crossed the Similkameen. The bridge itself had been abandoned by the railway in 1954. This is the only one of the six which remains and is now a British Columbia Heritage Property.
Since repurposed as a traffic bridge in 1961, it now carries a single lane of Ashnola Road over the Similkameen.
The bridge was honoured in 2019 with the
issuance of a postage stamp as part of a new "
heritage stamp series featuring historical covered bridges in Canada". The Keremeos Review then ran an article on the auspicious occasion, excerpts from which follow:
Historical Red Bridge celebrated in Canada Post heritage stamp series
The Similkameen Valley’s most photographed site, and the last remaining covered bridge in Western Canada, is part of a new Canada Post heritage stamp series featuring historical covered bridges in Canada.
Built in 1907, the Red Bridge was a former railway bridge crossing the Similkameen River, which carried the Great Northern Railway over the river near Keremeos.
It was rebuilt in 1926 and restored in 2005...
...The Canada Post stamp features a photograph of the bridge, its name, the year it opened and other key details, including the length of the span and the type of trusses used...
...In 1954, the railway tracks on the bridge were removed and it was converted for vehicle traffic in 1961. It is now used as a highway bridge to access the Ashnola Valley. The bridge is 942 feet in length...
...In addition to a stamp, the bridge is featured on a postage-paid postcard. The four other postcards feature New Brunswick’s Hartland Covered Bridge, the Powerscourt Bridge and Félix-Gabriel-Marchand Bridge in Quebec and Ontario’s West Montrose Covered Bridge.
From the Keremeos Review: