Departments > Engineering > Roads & Bridges > Johnson Street Bridge History

The Johnson Street Bridge was designed under the direction of Mr. F. M. Preston, City Engineer in 1920. This is a Bascule type bridge in which one end rises while a counter weight lowers on the opposite end. The Johnson Street Bridge has two separate Bascules, the Railway section and the Highway section. The Strauss Bascule Company Limited who held the patents on the design prepared the design for the bascule spans and the operating machinery. Joseph Strauss later went on to design the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. The superstructure of the bridge was fabricated in Walkerville, Ontario and contains 100 tons of steel. The City of Victoria Engineering Department built the sub-structure of the bridge. It required 10,000 cubic yards of concrete. The main opening span is 148 feet in length and when in the open position is balanced over a 45-foot fixed span. The eastern approach is spanned by a 110-foot fixed girder while the western approach has a 73-foot fixed girder.

The counter weight block on the highway span is a hollow concrete structure and contains a number of smaller concrete weights and tips the scale at over 780-tons. It balances the 350-ton opening span. The linkage is moved by two large racks which are driven by two 75 horsepower electric motors.

The Johnson Street Bridge was completed at a cost of $918,000 and opened in January of 1924. The original deck of the bridge was constructed of wood timbers. Besides being slippery in wet weather, the timber absorbed water and became heavier which affected the balance and placed excessive loads on the opening machinery. The timbers were replaced by an open steel grid decking of constant weight in 1966.

In 1979, extensive repairs were made to the superstructure, which had become severely corroded. The blue paint now on the bridge was selected because the oxides of its pigment are the same colour as the paint so that little fading of the colour occurs.

In 1995, abnormally high temperatures caused the steel decking to expand to the point the bridge would not open or close properly. This necessitated the removal of about 1-inch of the decking.

In 1996 the Johnson Street Bridge starred in its first major motion picture. The movie "Excess Baggage" starring Alicia Silverstone, used the bridge for 12 hours per day for a week. Even though the bridge is a major arterial connector to the western side of Victoria, the easygoing population took it in stride.

"It was late November, when the storm blew in. In the darkness of night, white caps foamed on the harbour. The rain pelted in sideways against the windows on my little shack. The bridge, lit by the glow from the street lamps, took on a ghostly appearance. That is when I got the call from a sailboat, requesting passage to the upper harbour. The two bridges, raised to the upright position, looked like two giant arms reaching for heaven. The wind was blowing through the girders making an odd sound when I thought I heard the words 'Come in, come in and let me give you shelter from the storm'."

- A quote from the Senior Bridge Operator

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