Le pont Royal-Albert, 1875-1876 histoire d’une bérézina sur fond de rivalités ferroviaires

Abstract

Prior to the construction of the Jacques Cartier Bridge in the late 1920s, several projects to cross the St. Lawrence at the same location of Montreal were proposed and abandoned, including the Royal Albert Bridge in 1875-1876. Although at first glance one might think that the failure of this imposing project, which would have ended the monopoly of the Victoria Bridge, was due to a lack of funding or to a technical challenge too great for the time, this was not the case. Even before groundbreaking, the Royal Albert Bridge project was abandoned because of the strong opposition it generated. Its history reveals the environmental constraints and the power and influence games in which the railway industry plays a central role.