Salmo River Bridge

There’s a series of old wood truss bridges scattered across the back roads and secondary highways of British Columbia. Distinctive in design and framed with massive timber beams, all tied together with metal bolts and rods, they look a bit outdated in today’s modern world, seemingly more fitting for a time when horsepower came from real horses than mechanical means. This example can be found on Airport Road near the community of Salmo.

The department of highways doesn’t seem to mention when it was built buy others in the province seems to date from the 1910s and 1920s. It’s pretty certain that some beams are newer, having been replaced over time. It’s built to a Howe Truss design, common for wood framed bridges like this. Diagonals are in compression, steel rods in tension. There is a load limit, as would be expected.

It’s not known how many similar bridges like this exist across the province – we couldn’t seem to find an inventory. This author knows of a few and no doubt there’s many, many more. A Google image search turned others.

Check out this timber road/rail bridge!
East Coulee’s historic wood bridge.

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Date of adventure: July, 2016.
Location: Salmo, BC.
The bridge is along a public road

Salmo BC, the Salmo River Bridge on Airport Road.

There are many wood truss secondary road bridges like this in the province.