Photo credit: City of Edmonton
Spanning the North Saskatchewan River next to the Alberta Legislature Building, the monumental High Level Bridge has long been Edmonton’s most famous heritage structure.
Built between 1910 and 1913 by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) and 777 metres in length, the High Level Bridge was one of the most ambitious pieces of infrastructure in western Canada, uniquely combining four modes of transportation: train, streetcar, automobile and pedestrian. Its construction was pivotal to the amalgamation of cities of Strathcona and Edmonton in 1912. Ownership passed from the CPR to the City of Edmonton in 1994, and the bridge is now a designated Municipal Historic Resource. It still carries roughly 24,000 to 27,000 vehicles a day, along with pedestrians, cyclists, and the heritage High Level Bridge Streetcar, a summer attraction that has run along its upper deck since 1997.
In May 2026, a city report recommended that the High Level Bridge, along with the neighbouring Low Level Bridge (1900), be decommissioned and eventually replaced. Engineering assessments said the 113-year-old structure was in worse condition than previously understood, with staff estimating that keeping it operational over the next 75 years could cost more than $1 billion in rehabilitation. Because the bridge is a protected heritage resource, City Council will need to repeal its designation before any demolition can proceed. Under the tentative timeline now before Council, planning and design for a new bridge will commence in the early 2030s with construction slated for 2035–2039. In the meantime, the City has approved a program of targeted rehabilitation and monitoring to begin in 2028.
This predicament echoes a pattern seen elsewhere in the country, most notably at the 1898 Alexandra Bridge connecting Ottawa and Gatineau, now expected to be replaced by 2032. In contrast, Quebec City’s historic Quebec Bridge (1917) is being rehabilitated by the federal government.
Location: Edmonton, AB
Endangered Places List: 2026
Status: Endangered
