The International Bridge Authority is a board composed of members from the Province of Ontario and the State of Michigan. Its purpose is to oversee management and operation of the International Bridge.
For information, write to:
P.O. Box 317
Sault Ste. Marie, MI 49783
| BRIDGE FACTS | |
|---|---|
| Name: | The Sault Ste. Marie International Bridge |
| Length: | Total maintenance length from American and Canadian approaches—2.8 miles. |
| Cost: | $20,000,000. |
| Designers: | Steinman, Boynton, Gronquist & London, New York. |
| Construction: | Started September 16, 1960. Opened to traffic October 31, 1962. |
| Width: | 28 foot roadway between curbs, providing 14 foot traffic lanes in each direction. |
| Tolls: | $1.50 each way for passenger cars. No extra charge for passengers. Canadian money accepted at par. |
| Height: | Roadway is 145 feet above ground level at its highest point. |
| Clearance: | Bridge has 124 feet minimum vertical clearance above low water in ship canals. |
| Weight: | 125,000 tons of which 114,000 tons are concrete and 11,000 tons are structural steel. |
| Colors: | Green and ivory. |
| Speeds: | Maximum 30 miles per hour. |
The ease of traveling through the Locks or over the St. Mary’s Rapids is now taken for granted but the dreams of building these structures began over a hundred years ago, just after Michigan became a state in 1837.
Traveling from one side of the river to the other first began in canoes. Bands of Ojibwa Indians would camp and fish at the rapids they called “Bawating”, meaning rushing water.
The rapids became a gathering point for as many as 50,000 Native Americans each summer, for centuries.
In the 1600’s it became a settlement for French explorers and fur traders.
Through wars control of the rapids went to the British in the mid 1700’s and finally, a shared border with the United States in the 1800’s.
As copper and iron ore were discovered in the western Upper Peninsula in 1830, ship traffic increased but had to be portaged over land at the rapids. This difficult task eventually led to construction of the first lock in 1855, and the second in 1871, a joint venture between the State of Michigan and the U.S. Government.
In 1880, the first land transportation over the river between the U.S. and Canada was established with a railroad bridge. In 1895, the Canadian Lock was completed.
In 1943 and 1969 two other U.S. locks were built, one of which is capable of carrying the 1000 ft. super freighters.
From the 1880’s til the 1960’s the only forms of transportation across the St. Mary’s River, between the two Saults, were ferries and the railroad bridge.
The inconvenience and delays of those days have been eliminated, thanks to the International Bridge.
Nearly a decade of engineering study, legislative action in Lansing, Washington, Toronto, and Ottawa, and the sale of bonds to finance the project preceded construction of the bridge. Michigan Governor G. Mennen Williams and Ontario Treasurer James N. Allen were the main participants in groundbreaking ceremonies for construction of the bridge on September 16, 1960.
Dr. Carl Gronquist of the consulting engineering firm, Steinman, Boynton, Gronquist and Birdsall, designed the two-mile long bridge supported on 62 piers that would cost $20,000,000. The Michigan State Highway Department agreed to construct the Michigan approach to the bridge, a project costing very close to $4,000,000, which was tied into the Interstate Freeway system and financed 90 percent by federal funds. The International Bridge Authority then proposed a bond issue of $16,250,000 to raise the remainder of the money.
The issue was divided into $8,400,000 in Series A bonds to be sold on the New York market, and $7,850,000 in Series B bonds, all to be retired within 40 years from bridge revenues. To facilitate financing, the Province of Ontario bought the entire Series B bonds in one sale and thus guaranteed a quick sale for the Series A bonds in the United States bond market.
The International Bridge was opened to traffic on October 31, 1962.
Located to the west of the locks and running parallel with the railroad bridge, the International Bridge “takes off” from the U.S. side near the campus of Lake Superior State University which overlooks the area from the site of the former Fort Brady.
As you enter the first archway, the world famous Soo Locks are visible below.
Further on, you’ll pass the International Boundary at the middle of the Bridge. Off to the west you’ll see a series of 16 gates. These gates control the water flow from Lake Superior down to the other connecting Great Lakes. The management of this water flow is operated by the International Joint Commission which makes determinations of gate activity based on the various lake levels.
Within the rapids area, produced by the 7 water rushing through the gates, there is a concrete berm, or wall, stretching about one quarter of a mile. The berm was constructed as a joint operation by the electric utilities of the U.S. and Canada. Its objective is to keep an adequate water flow around Whitefish Island, a natural spawning ground for salmon.
Just beyond Whitefish Island is the Canadian Lock and then the power canal and the hydro-electric generating station of Great Lakes Power.
Approaching Sault, Ontario, there is an excellent view of the city’s growing industrial complex with huge plants of the Algoma Steel Corporation—one of Canada’s largest steel mills—to the west, and the St. Marys Inc. paper plants to the east.
The volume of traffic between the two Saults has more than quadrupled in the first twenty-five years of operation. Some 2,234,000 vehicles crossed the bridge in 1987, as compared to 415,000 vehicles carried by the ferries during their final full year of operation in 1961.
Published by Bill Davie, Trinity Productions.
THE ST. MARY’S
INTERNATIONAL
WATERWAY
BETWEEN THE
TWO
SAULT STE.
MARIES
from Photograph
taken 1978
