The St. Louis (former Grand Trunk Pacific Railway) Bridge is located adjacent to the Village of St. Louis, approximately 30 km south of Prince Albert. The structure, which crosses the South Saskatchewan River, was completed in early 1915. It consists of five Parker steel trusses and a shorter Pratt truss near the centre of the structure. Traffic attachments were added to each side of the bridge in 1928.

The design of this bridge is similar to the steel truss “Traffic Bridge” in Saskatoon (completed in 1907) and the bridge constructed over the North Saskatchewan River at Battleford in 1909.

The firm of John Gunn and Sons Ltd. of Winnipeg constructed the concrete foundations, piers and abutments, which were completed by early November, 1914. The steel superstructure was provided by the Canadian Bridge Company of Walkerville (now Windsor), Ontario. Erection of steel commenced in February, 1915 and was completed on April 1, 1915. These prominent contractors also were responsible for Saskatoon’s Traffic Bridge.

The 100-foot central span was designed so that it could be transformed into a vertical lift span should this be required for future river navigation. This capability was requested by the Department of Public Works, although the GTP pointed out at the time that “the river is blocked by fixed spans on either side of this location [the 1907 Traffic Bridge upstream at Saskatoon and the 1905 Canadian Northern Railway Bridge downstream near Fenton]…[and that the GTP is] …led to believe that the territory interested in the construction of our railroad…feel satisfied that the design of fixed spans as we are contemplating will be approved by the Department of Public Works, as these local interests do not consider it necessary to provide open spans.” The province agreed with the GTP’s position to have all fixed spans but noted that when Public Works were “constructing the Saskatoon [Traffic] bridge, the Dominion Government called our attention to the fact that the South Saskatchewan River was a navigable stream, and all future bridge [sic] should be provided with a swing span in order to anticipate the river being navigable in the future.” This may explain why the Canadian Northern Railway Bridge at Prince Albert was constructed in 1909 with a central swing span rather than a vertical lift span.

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