Friday, November 27, 2009

Four O'Clock Factoid: Cantilevered

Four O'Clock Factoid is a daily feature on Track Twenty-Nine helping to get you through the workday with a bit of useless knowledge.

The longest cantilever span in the world spans the Saint Lawrence River near Charny, Quebec and is known as the Quebec Bridge. It is the most downstream crossing of the Saint Lawrence River and is owned by Canadian National Railway. It carries three lanes of auto traffic in addition to a pedestrian walkway. Via Rail Canada's Corridor trains traverse the bridge en route to Quebec City's Gare du Palais.

1 comment:

Matt Fisher said...

I've been over the bridge on train when I went to Quebec City last year. In fact, the Via train actually goes on a rather circuitrous route, I find. There's also Via stations both in Sainte-Foy (a suburb of Quebec City) and Charny. At Charny, this is the point where the Chaleur, to the Gaspésie Region of Quebec, and the Ocean split.

Matt, I know you were on the Ocean from Halifax into Quebec, going through New Brunswick. One of the cities this stops in, Moncton, is New Brunswick's second largest city (the largest is Saint John) and was originally built around a rail hub. It's the home of something interesting called Magnetic Hill.

Too bad they don't have trains in Newfoundland (but still do in Labrador) any more. I'm orignally from there and was born in the capital of Newfoundland and Labrador, St. John's, which shouldn't be confused with Saint John, New Brunswick. :)