page_title: High Level Bridge (Edmonton)
section_title: Great Divide Waterfall
hierarchical_section_title: High Level Bridge (Edmonton) / Modifications / Great Divide Waterfall
caption_attribution_description: 2001 Sourdough Raft Race, passing beneath the High Level Bridge's Great Divide waterfall. (Edmonton, Alberta)
context_page_description: The High Level Bridge is a bridge that spans the North Saskatchewan River in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Located next to the Alberta Legislature Building, the bridge linked the separate communities of Edmonton and Strathcona, which became one city in 1912. It was designed from the outset to accommodate rail, streetcar, two-way automobile, and pedestrian traffic. The original bridge design included three tracks on the upper deck. The first CPR train operated on June 2, 1913, after which the bridge became a part of the Calgary-Edmonton main line. Streetcar service started on the west streetcar track of the bridge on August 11, 1913 with the east streetcar track opening by September of that year and automobile traffic after that. Automobile traffic did not begin at the same time as CPR and streetcar traffic as the lower deck had not been completed and the installation of galvanized iron under the tracks was still needed to prevent cinders dropping from steam trains onto traffic on the lower deck.
context_section_description: In 1980 the Great Divide Waterfall by artist Peter Lewis was added to the structure for Alberta's 75th anniversary. The man-made waterfall dropped 64 m (210 ft) from the top of the bridge, (7 m higher than Niagara Falls) into the North Saskatchewan River at a rate of 50,000 litres per minute. It operated during holiday weekends in the summer months until 2009 when it was shut off after consultation with Environment Canada.
  From roughly April 2012 to April 2013, city council deliberated on whether or not it should re-open the waterfall, and in 2013, $735,000 was allocated for "Great Divide waterfall refurbishment". As of 2014, the city has all but scrapped the plans to refurbish the waterfall, citing the estimated $2.6 million price tag as too high. The final decision to decommission the waterfall was stayed until fall 2014, as public reaction was gauged and community fundraising options were considered.
  In 2016, city council voted against the removal of the pipes for the waterfall. While there are no current plans to reactivate the falls, the decision to leave the pipes in place allows for that possibility in the future.
  The waterfall remains a part of the City of Edmonton's Public Art Collection.
caption: The Great Divide Waterfall during the annual sourdough raft race, July 2001
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop 7.0", "Image DateTime": "2007:01:05 15:39:03", "Image ExifOffset": "156", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "294", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3601", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1400", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1158"}