The old truss bridge spanning the Twelve Mile Creek at the foot of St. Paul Terrace was once an alternate way to cross from west St. Catharines into the downtown core. It carried traffic across the creek on St. Paul Crescent, but was decommissioned for vehicular traffic prior to the construction of Highway 406.

The original bridge in this location was a wooden swing bridge. The wooden bridge’s importance dwindled after the construction of the adjacent high-level Burgoyne Bridge to the north. Though this greatly improved steel box-girder bridge eventually replaced its wooden precursor, the steep hills on either side of the crossing remained a problem to pedestrians and vehicles.

In the mid-1980s, Highway 406 was completed through the Twelve Mile Creek Valley from Geneva Street to the Queen Elizabeth Way, definitively cutting off the west side of St. Paul Crescent from the downtown core. A concrete pedestrian bridge, designated as part of the Merritt Trail, was built from the east end of the St. Paul Crescent bridge to MGuire Street at St. Paul Crescent north.

This bridge and many others like it have been chronicled on the Historic Bridges website, www.historicbridges.org .

Click to play or download St. Paul Crescent Bridge TripClip (mp3 format)

This destination is also part of the TripClip tour 'Touring the Twelve.'