Bow River Bridge — Local services in Banff

The current Bow River Bridge represents the third generation of bridges across Bow River built at this location, and originally aimed to serve visitors' access to the Cave and Basin Hot Springs discovered in 1883.

The first bridge installed here in 1883 was a temporary pontoon bridge. It was replaced by permanent single-lane iron truss bridge commissioned in 1887. Since 1910s, when automobiles were first allowed in the park, the administration planned to replace the bridge with a concrete option, but project was put on hold until the reconstraction was approved by Banff residents in 1919. The third two-lane automobile and pedestrian bridge, that you see now, was modeled by the federal engineer Dr. E. Brydon-Jack based on drawings supplied early in 1914 by City Beautiful town planner Thomas Mawson. This bridge was constructed in 1920-1921. It was decorated by six concrete-cast reliefs of an Indian Man Head, mounted on both sides of the bridge's outer walls, designed by the sculptor James L. Thomson, who also created the lions cast on Calgary's Centre Street Bridge.

The current bridge is considered a Banff's historical landmark, and continues to serve traffic between the downtown and facilities located on the south side of...

Appearance - 3/5 History - 4/5 Importance - 5/5 Efficiency - 1/5 Functiality - 2/5 The main problem is 2 main roads (Mountain Ave and Spray Ave) which are heavily travelled and they funnel into 1 lane crossing the bridge which creates huge bottle necks. Sometimes traffic can take 45min to drive...

Stop here when in Jasper. Beautiful flow of the Bow river and the waterfall is full of water. There is a short hike along the waterfall on the side of the hotel - the beautiful building rising from the woods next to the river. You can see the waterfall and the hotel of the other side of the...