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Key Facts |
Bridge Name | Type | Road | Location | City | Crossing |
| King's Highway 40 Big Creek Bridge #4 | Concrete | King's Highway 40 | Chatham-Kent Region, ON | Rural | Big Creek |
There are five of these bridges all one right after another, and oddly enough all crossing the same creek, which weaves back and forth across Kings Highway 40 between Wallaceburg and Chatham. Individually, the structures are one of Ontario's most widely constructed historical standard plan bridge designs, the concrete rigid frame, which featured a pleasing arch shape with decorative, period railing design. Each bridge is individually of limited to non-existent historic significance, but together this is a rare case where one right after another this bridge design is seen in an essentially unmodified condition. For the short distance that these five bridges occur, it almost feels like one has traveled back in time many decades. Long ago, when these bridges were being built seeing one right after another would have been more common than it is today, although I will note that Ontario still has many of these bridges remaining today. But because I realize this may not always be the case, I felt it worth documenting a few of the more impressive examples of these bridges, and thus I include these bridges for their proximity to each other. Plus, being on a busy road, these are bridges likely seen by many people who never give them a second thought.
Just for note, the neighboring state of Michigan despite a traditional shared fondness for concrete structures, had by the time Ontario was building rigid-frame bridges took on the simple steel stringer beam bridge. There are only a handful of rigid-frame bridges in Michigan, and the one I have seen on M-28 almost looks like the design came straight from Ontario, including the Michigan-style version of the same basic railing as well as the arched shape under the deck!
