page_title: Honoré Mercier Bridge
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Honoré Mercier Bridge / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Honoré Mercier Bridge at sunset
context_page_description: The Honoré Mercier Bridge in Quebec, Canada, connects the Montreal borough of LaSalle on the Island of Montreal with the Mohawk reserve of Kahnawake, Quebec and the suburb of Châteauguay on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River. It is the most direct southerly route from the island of Montreal toward the US border. It carries Route 138, originally Route 4. It is 1.361 km in length and contains four steel trusses on its first section. The height of the bridge varies from 12.44 m to 33.38 m with the highest sections located over the St. Lawrence Seaway. The bridge is named after former premier of Quebec Honoré Mercier.
  Unique in Quebec, the bridge is managed by both the federal and provincial governments. The southwest portion of the bridge, over 1,031 metres from the beginning of the arch bridge, is the responsibility of a Crown corporation: the Jacques Cartier and Champlain Bridges Incorporated. The rest of the bridge is owned by the Quebec Ministry of Transport, which is also responsible for the day-to-day operations of the complex, including the federal part.
  The bridge has two lanes of traffic in each direction and a total span of nearly two kilometres.
context_section_description: Before the bridge was built there was a ferry service.
  The bridge, known in the developmental stage as the "Saint-Louis Bridge" (for the nearby located Lake Saint-Louis and the parish of Saint-Louis-de-Caughnawaga, today part of the Kahnawake reserve), was designed by eleven French-Canadian engineers, all graduates of the École Polytechnique de Montréal, and was built by the Dominion Bridge Company Ltd under a government-funded work program. Construction of the bridge began in November 1932 and was completed in the early summer of 1934. It was opened to traffic on June 22, 1934 (named "Honoré-Mercier" during its inauguration by mayor Taschereau, 10 months ahead of schedule with a toll of 50 cents for an automobile and driver—later reduced to 25 cents. Today there is no toll charged for crossing the bridge.
  The original east approach was on Lafleur Avenue, which ran straight into the Gauron Bridge over the Lachine Canal.
  The higher section over the Saint Lawrence Seaway was added in the late 1950s. In August 1963, the Quebec Department of Public Works approved the construction of a "second" bridge downstream from the first. This increased the number of lanes from two to four.
caption: Honoré Mercier bridge at sunset
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