For nearly 85 years, the historic Kiskatinaw curved wooden bridge has been on the bucket list for travellers driving up the Alaska Highway.
Even when all the signs say “bridge closed.”
“The sign said ‘closed’ at the bridge, and I said, ‘Well, the bridge is where I want to go,'” said Dave Lirette, a tourist from Colorado who recently made a quick detour onto an old section of highway to see the bridge between Dawson Creek and Fort St. John.
The northern B.C. landmark has been barricaded since June 2021 because of structural safety concerns first caused by a small landslide against one of the bridge’s piers.
Five years later, there’s still no timeline for its reopening, leaving local officials worried the popular tourist destination could be lost forever.
“You get underneath it. You can see a little bit of a propeller twist in the structure of the bridge,” Lirette said. “It’s shifting over time.”
Darrell Gunn, who is in charge of bridges and highways for the B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Transit in northern B.C., said engineers removed the material pressing against the bridge’s piers but he’s worried the two hillsides supporting both ends of the bridge are still moving and causing the structure to shift.
Gunn said the ministry is reviewing options to remediate the bridge, and hopes to have a clearer picture of its future this year.
“We really have to look at what’s needed to keep that safe,” said Gunn.
The horseshoe-shaped bridge was built during the Second World War, moving thousands of troops into the north to shore up continental defences.
For locals, its completion has endured as a symbol of Canada and U.S co-operation.
“It’s unique and you’re not going to see anything like this anywhere else,” said Ryan MacIvor, who oversees tourism development as the general manager of community services for the City of Dawson Creek and has helped in efforts to preserve the bridge.
Father and son discover fossilized ichthyosaur skull in B.C.’s Kiskatinaw River valley
Made with B.C. lumber, the bridge’s nine-degree curve steers through steep and rolling terrain. According to the province, it was the first curved wooden bridge built in Canada, and the only curved, banked trestle bridge remaining in Western Canada.
“It’s something special and we should spend more time, care, attention, share the history and look to see how we can preserve and protect it,” MacIvor said.
But since its closure, the bridge has fallen into disrepair. People still walk across it, though visitors can see damaged and rotting wood, graffiti and signs of fire.
Gunn couldn’t say whether the bridge will ever reopen.
He said the ministry continues to monitor it, but notes his department is also trying to figure out how to replace other aging infrastructure in the region like the Taylor Bridge, a much busier crossing and major economic link for northern B.C. and Canada into the territories.
“There’s a lot to consider, but certainly we know it’s beloved,” Gunn said.
The Alaska Highway was rerouted around the historic bridge in the 1970s as the oil and gas industry boomed, and surrounding communities grew.
Though the bridge no longer carries heavy traffic, it’s still a tourist stop and a landmark for locals.
Northeast B.C. archaeological site home to 12,500 years of Indigenous history
It’s next to a provincial park and the river valley is a paleontological playground.
Just a few years ago, a father and son found a massive, 700-kilogram fossilized skull of an ichthyosaur, an ancient marine reptile that swam the sea that covered B.C. 250 million years ago.
“I raised my children here,” said Melissa Klassen. “Multiple times per summer we would come and enjoy this area, enjoy this bridge, enjoy being in nature.”
Klassen works as a visitor experience co-ordinator for Dawson Creek, answering questions visitors have about the bridge’s history and how to find it.
“Visitors come back and tell us how amazing they thought it was, the scale of it in person as opposed to pictures,” Klassen said. “They’re not quite ready for that, so when they get to see what this bridge is in person, they’re quite impressed. And also they would like to see it usable and accessible too.”
Artifacts of Victoria’s past discovered by crews in sealed compartment beneath street
MacIvor and Klassen hope to see a solution soon, whether that means making repairs and reopening the bridge to vehicles, or preserving it for pedestrians while improving accessibility and adding better historical interpretation.
MacIvor said public interest will play a role in influencing the province’s decision.
“It’s awareness, it’s advocacy,” MacIvor said. “It’s one of those things you don’t realize what you have until you don’t have it anymore.”
How a B.C. town is finding new life, more than 50 years after its mine closed
Subscribe to CBC’s Fort St. John Weekly for a roundup of the best news and stories from B.C.’s Peace and Northern Rockies.
