The Canada-US Thousand Island Bridge system celebrated its 80th birthday in August with presentations and an open house at its US headquarters.
The 33.7km three-bridge system over the St Lawrence River took 16 months to build and was completed 10 weeks ahead of schedule. It runs from Collins Landing near Alexandria Bay in the US state of New York to the small town of Ivy Lea in the Canadian province of Ontario. The system connects US Interstate 81 and Canada’s Highway 401, a major motorway between Montreal and Toronto, ending in Windsor on the Ontario border with the US state of Michigan.
The 1,370m crossing over the American channel of the river – from the US mainland to Wellesley Island – consists of a suspension bridge with a main span of around 245m and nearly 46m of clearance above the river.
The Canadian crossing includes the 183m continuous Warren Truss span connecting Hill Island to Constance Island, a steel arch of 106m spans from Constance Island to Georgina Island and a suspension bridge of 229m from Georgina Island to the Canadian mainland. The Canadian span from abutment to abutment is 1,015m and the suspension span provides 37m of river clearance.
The boundary at the International Rift boundary – the channel between Wellesley Island and Hill Island – is bridged by two parallel 27.4m rigid-frame arched spans of reinforced concrete with masonry facing. Originally there was only one bridge at boundary but due to increased traffic it was twinned in 1959.
Operation of the Thousand Islands Bridge system is shared under a joint agreement that created the US based Thousand Islands Bridge Authority which estimates that there are 2,000 vehicle-cross the annually. The system’s original consulting engineer was Robinson and Steinman of New York City that continues to do so today but as Parsons Transportation, notes the authority.
