Searchmont Railroad Bridge

Most Recent Visit: May 13, 2006

Sault Ste. Marie may be a decent sized town, but it does not take a very long drive to get into the middle of nowhere and feel like you are way up in the northern country! This bridge is in the town of Searchmont, which except for a ski resort is otherwise an eerie ghost town. This railroad bridge, an Algoma Central (today a Canadian National line) bridge still stands proud though. An absolutely stunning Parker truss, the bridge features pinned connections. It features a lattice portal bracing. Lattice is also present under the top chord. V-lacing is present on the verticals, as well as on an end-post brace, and also on the sway bracing. The bridge is a seven panel structure. There is a deck plate girder approach at the northern end. Piers and abutments are oddly made of concrete. I would have expected an older bridge like this one, located in a world of rocky hills to have stone abutments. It would seem more of an annoyance to work with concrete out in the middle of nowhere when you were surrounded by rock.

I wish the weather had been nicer when I was here, many of my photos are not so good. I still included many full/wallpaper sized images to document the bridge. I was however happy with the photo you see on this page, I thought it was really cool looking with the large hill in the background. If you want to get the same view, turn left onto the road after the bridge heading north. Also note that the nearby highway bridge is both new and ugly. I have no idea what was here before, but I am sure it was more interesting. I have no idea why Ontario would demolish whatever was here before and build this ugly new bridge for the handful of cars that might actually use it.