Blue Water Bridge Sarnia, Ontario, Canada

On yet another road trip I found myself in Canada today. I drove on I-90 west for 8 boring hours until I got to Buffalo and crossed over into Canada on the Peace Bridge. Things didn’t get much better there. Buffalo isn't the prettiest city around and that part of Canada pretty much looked like the United States. Same strip malls with the same stores no doubt selling the same stuff, although I think the signage was even bigger than we have in the US.

The border crossing dude took his job very seriously, which was kinda amusing. He asked me tough questions, like "What state are you from?"...(HUH, don't you see my license plate and have my drivers license and passport in your hands?...Oh yea, that’s right, they don't all match...ooopsie) and "What's under the tarp?". That one had him on the edge for a few seconds but he ultimately let me go.

I later found out as I was listening to the news on Canadian radio, that the 36th annual G-8 Summit is being held this weekend in Canada, 473 km away from my destination, however far that is. It might be time to learn this metric stuff. In addition to the G-8 Summit, there was a 5.0 magnitude earthquake in the area which was apparently felt in the US. No injuries and very little property damage, so pretty cool. I didn't feel it though. Maybe border crossing man was having a bad day.

After arriving at my destination and spending a little time unwinding from the road, we headed out for a quick tour of the area. The sun had just set and the sky still had a beautiful pink light in it. I didn't stop for pictures as I wanted to see the bridge before it got to dark. We arrived as the last of the light was fading in the sky and I have to say that sometimes life is good.

The Blue Water Bridge spans the St. Clair River between Sarnia, Ontario, Canada and Port Huron, Michigan, USA. It was opened in 1938 with two lanes and a sidewalk which was later removed to add a third lane. By 1992 the traffic volume was exceeding the bridge’s capacity so 5 years later a second span was opened. Notice anything unusual about the bridge? I sat and looked at that bridge for a good 15 minutes and didn't notice, until I researched the bridge online, that the two spans are not identical.

It seems that the cantilever truss style of the original bridge was not chosen for the second bridge because they didn’t want to create a “false sense of history”. A continuous-tied arch design was selected because it would blend in with the original bridge and it would have lower maintenance cost. The original bridge is the one in the foreground of the picture.