The Centre Street Bridge is a bridge in Calgary

Calgary

Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...

, Alberta

Alberta

Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...

, crossing the Bow River

Bow River

The Bow River is a river in the Canadian province of Alberta. It is a tributary of the South Saskatchewan River, and is considered the headwater of the Nelson River....

, along the Centre Street

Centre Street (Calgary)

Centre Street is a major road in Calgary, Alberta.The northern part extends from the Bow River to Bergen Road/Beddington Drive, after which it becomes a local arterial street before it becomes unavailable to private vehicular traffic north of Bergen Crescent...

. The lower deck connects Riverfront Avenue in Chinatown

Chinatown, Calgary

Calgary's Chinatown is the fourth largest in Canada after those in Vancouver,Toronto, and Montreal. The size of Calgary's Chinatown is indicative of the relatively high proportion of people of Asian descent living in the city....

 with Memorial Drive

Memorial Drive (Calgary)

Memorial Drive is a major road in Calgary, Alberta. Besides having an important role in city infrastructure, the tree lined sides of Memorial Drive serve as a living testament to the many soldiers who died during World War I and give it a parkway look on the western section...

, while the upper elevated deck crosses Memorial Drive as well, reaching into the community of Crescent Heights

Crescent Heights, Calgary

Crescent Heights is a neighbourhood in the northwest quadrant of Calgary, Alberta. It is located in the inner city, immediately north from Downtown...

.

History

It was built by The City of Calgary in 1916 for $375,000. It replaced the MacArthur Bridge, a steel truss bridge built by a land developer called the Centre Street Bridge Company Limited The MacArthur Bridge was destroyed by a flood in 1915. Centre Street Bridge was designed by John F. Green, featured an upper and lower deck, and large cast concrete lions on four massive plinths, two at each end of the bridge. The lions were cast by Scottish mason James L. Thompson, and were modelled after the brass lions at the base of Nelson's Column

Nelson's Column

Nelson's Column is a monument in Trafalgar Square in central London built to commemorate Admiral Horatio Nelson, who died at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The monument was constructed between 1840 and 1843 to a design by William Railton at a cost of £47,000. It is a column of the Corinthian...

 in Trafalgar Square

Trafalgar Square

Trafalgar Square is a public space and tourist attraction in central London, England, United Kingdom. At its centre is Nelson's Column, which is guarded by four lion statues at its base. There are a number of statues and sculptures in the square, with one plinth displaying changing pieces of...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. The upper deck, a reinforced concrete arch structure, spans 178 metres (584 ft) and is 15 metres (49.2 ft) wide. The lower deck, an "I" girders structure, runs for 150 metres (492.1 ft) and is 5.5 metres (18 ft) wide.

Centre Street Bridge is the central point of the quadrant system of the city.

The bridge went through extensive restoration in 2001, when it was closed for one year. The lower deck is configured with reversible lane

Reversible lane

A reversible lane , called a counterflow lane or contraflow lane in transport engineering nomenclature, is a lane in which traffic may travel in either direction, depending on certain conditions...

s. The original lions were replaced with replicas after considerable debate. Local legends of adjacent Chinatown

Chinatown, Calgary

Calgary's Chinatown is the fourth largest in Canada after those in Vancouver,Toronto, and Montreal. The size of Calgary's Chinatown is indicative of the relatively high proportion of people of Asian descent living in the city....

 hold that the lions would come alive after dark and roam the city streets. One of the original lions is now located at City Hall, another is in long term storage.

The opening scene of the 2001 Steven Seagal

Steven Seagal

Steven Frederic Seagal is an American action film star, producer, writer, martial artist, guitarist and reserve deputy sheriff. A 7th-dan black belt in Aikido, Seagal began his adult life as an Aikido instructor in Japan...

 movie Exit Wounds

Exit Wounds

Exit Wounds is a 2001 action film based on the book of the same name by John Westermann. The book takes place on Long Island, while the film is set in Detroit. The film was directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak, and stars Steven Seagal as an urban detective notorious for pushing the limits of the law in...

was filmed on the bridge.