One More River to Cross Revelstoke’s Railway Bridges

First Nations, who had travelled the river from time immemorial, knew it well and gave it many names. “Ouragon” was one—today spelled Oregon. In 1775 explorer Bruno de Heceta charted its mouth as “Rio de San Roque.” Spain later lost its claim to the United States, and in May 1792 Captain Robert Gray of Boston entered the river in his ship Columbia and gave it her name. That name endured, but it was North West Company mapmaker David Thompson who first grasped its full length.

...in May 1792 Captain Robert Gray of Boston entered the river in his ship Columbia and gave it her name.

European names accumulated along its course, especially for features noted by voyageurs. One lies on the 51st parallel, which intersects the Columbia twice—creating the famous “Big Bend,” a 180-degree curve that reverses the river between Golden and Revelstoke.

The ’Stoke sits on the bend’s western side beside “the Big Eddy,” a fine backwater campsite for fur brigades. CPR surveyor Walter Moberly even found a blaze left there by Thompson 54 years earlier.

Moberly was among later surveyors adding more European names to the map—Eagle Pass for instance—as he criss-crossed the region, often on foot, seeking passages running perpendicular to rivers. Southern BC’s mountain chains run roughly north-south, making it easy for Americans still believing in Manifest Destiny to enter Canada via valleys crossing the 49th parallel. They had already done so during the mid-1860s Big Bend gold rush. Sir John A Macdonald was determined to stop that happening again by driving a railway east-west across the intervening mountains.

During the winter of 1884 the CPR’s end-of-steel stopped at Beaver (later Beavermouth) near the Beaver River’s confluence with the Columbia. Coming from east of the Big Bend, tracklayers descended the Rockies to bridge the river there at “First Crossing”.

Next, in the Selkirk Mountains, crews battled deep snow, clearing right-of-way, hauling supplies, and milling crossties and bridge timbers. Not until October 1885 did they emerge from the Illecillewaet valley’s “green dark forest too silent to be real”, (Gordon Lightfoot’s phrase) with 26 miles (42 kilometres) still to go. West of there, contractor Andrew Onderdonk’s crews had run out of rails and telegraph wire the week before, halting progress prematurely in Eagle Pass.

The Illecillewaet (Secwépemc meaning “swift water”) joins the Columbia near The Eddy, aligned with Eagle Pass. Here the CPR prepared a “Second Crossing,” already the site of a private toll bridge built for freight wagons by road contractor Gustavus B Wright, who also owned a sawmill. His bridge aided CPR supply movements and his mill must have provided ties and timbers.

Completion was critical to the company’s—and perhaps the country’s—survival.

A permanent bridge would come later—first priority was to finish the line. This last big trestle carried trains to the section being rushed toward the last spike at Craigellachie. Completion was critical to the company’s—and perhaps the country’s—survival.

On 4 March 1885, project manager Ross told general manager WC Van Horne: “The West Crossing cribs are completed and filled with stone and I have a mill on the ground which will be going in a very short time...” Low winter water had allowed crews to build stone-filled timber cribs on the ice, easing the work. Yet storms, 30 feet (9 metres) of Selkirk snow, heavy timbering to descend the Illecillewaet headwall, and a summer of rain, washouts, and slides upset Ross’s schedule.

The first Revelstoke bridge had two levels with rails above and road below. It was hastily finished in 1885. It replaced Wright’s toll bridge. By then a townsite had appeared on the east bank, laid out by surveyor Arthur S Farwell, who pre-empted land the railway was obliged to cross.

He expected a divisional point on his acreage and promoted his village as a meeting point of Canadian (rail) and American (river) trade routes. Van Horne was unmoved in his refusal to pay. The CPR founded its own townsite nearby, and in 1886 secured the Post Office name Revelstoke. Farwell eventually became a mere neighbourhood of the larger community.

The first train crossed the Columbia here on 17 October 1885, just 21 days before the last spike at Craigellachie. The mountain portion did not remain open that winter; snowfall was simply too deep. However, crews were kept at work on the second Columbia River bridge, which is presumed finished in 1886.

Replacing that initial trestle with a stronger bridge was a major expense. The second bridge, photographed about 1895, shows the river full with spring freshet. One span was raised in the early 1890s. About then, improvements were evidently being considered:

The great floods of 1894 had begun. National transportation was shut down for weeks while victims were aided, mudslides cleared, and bridges rebuilt. The repair costs were astronomical. The bridge at Revelstoke held in place due to heroic actions by crews, but the proposed new bridge was set back by years. The whole province was set back by years.

Sometime between 1897 and 1907, the timber Howe trusses at Revelstoke were sheathed in planks—probably to protect them from more weathering—12 years is the average durability of wood. This protection prolonged their life but increased fire risk, so water barrels provided protection and watchmen were assigned regular foot patrols.

Covered bridges were rare in BC, with only four having been identified by this author.

Van Horne had paused stone and steel construction back in 1884 to cut costs, but by the late 1890s the CPR was profitable and replacing many wooden spans. Nearby trestles were incrementally replaced with granite and steel by 1899; engineers likely reckoned the Columbia bridge could serve a few more years if kept dry. Covered bridges were rare in BC, with only four having been identified by this author.

Mount Begbie in the Monashees overlooks this lovely view of a CPKC container train heading west to the coast, 23 August 2025. The rail bridge continues to stand strong after 57 years of service. This structure is critical to the economy of all Canada. Movie © TW Parkin.

Finally, in 1907 the CPR built a steel span at Revelstoke, using concrete for piers and abutments. This bridge was among the first to use concrete, which was then replacing stone masonry as an industrial material. The earlier wooden bridge was removed after the track was realigned for the adjacent replacement. This structure stood until 1968, when I watched its replacement with an eight-span welded steel bridge, 1,122 feet (342 metres) long, then the largest welded spans on any North American railway.

Despite its fireproof structure, a 2013 deck fire proved that fire remained a hazard; it took 18 firefighters and a helicopter to extinguish the creosoted ties and timbers, but train traffic resumed the next day.

When bridge gangs reached Second Crossing in 1885, they might have thought it their last—a River Jordan for the national project. Yet in 140 years, five bridges have crossed here, each lasting longer than the last. The current span will likely be the last most readers will photograph.