Champlain Bridge

Story

The Champlain Bridge is a steel truss cantilever bridge with approach viaducts constructed of prestressed concrete beams supporting a prestressed concrete deck paved with asphalt. The bridge crosses the Saint Lawrence River and Saint Lawrence Seaway, connecting the Montreal boroughs of Verdun and Le Sud-Ouest to Brossard on the South Shore.The bridge, with approaches, is approximately 6km long. When the project began, it was designated as the "Nuns' Island Bridge" because it crosses over Nuns' Island. In 1958, it was officially named the Champlain Bridge in honour of the explorer Samuel de Champlain, who founded Quebec City in 1608.Together with the Jacques Cartier Bridge, it is administered by the Jacques Cartier and Champlain Bridges Incorporated, a Canadian Crown Corporation which reports to Infrastructure Canada.The bridge sees about 50 million crossings per year, of which 200,000 are buses. On an average weekday, 66% of users are commuters. It is one of the busiest single-span bridges in Canada.