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Rice Lake Trestle Bridge

an old black and white photograph showing a rough wooden trestle bridge, nearby to the left and receding into the distance to the right over a lake which appears to be ice covered. A man sits on the bridge in the foreground and dimly in the distance is the other shore of the lake.

Rice Lake Bridge, Armstrong & Beere

Credit: Library and Archives Canada, Reproduction Copy No. C-011865

This photograph, taken in 1856, is one of only three known to have been taken of the Rice Lake Bridge while it was still operational. It shows that a small portion of the trestle, probably from the Harwood shore, is supported by earth and stone in causeway style. It was the intention of the engineers and builders that virtually the whole bridge should be supported in this way. However, due to lack of money and time, this was not done, resulting in the gradual destruction of the bridge by ice. In 1861 it was declared unsafe and abandoned