The Battle River Trestle

The Battle River Trestle. The Trestle. West of Wainwright the railway met a deep challenge, a glorious valley that was home to the Battle River. In 1907, the concrete footings of the bridge that would span the valley were poured. Farmers and other contractors hauled supplies to the site by wagon from Hardisty. When the railway crept to the eastern side of the valley, supplies could be brought in by rail. The construction site became a community all its own with a store, café, and hospital. When three men working on the trestle drowned after their scow was swamped in mid-stream, their fellow workers erected a cairn in their memory., The Battle River Trestle, completed on December 10, 1908, is 2775 feet long and stands 195 feet above the river. The high earth fill beyond the west abutment of the steel trestle conceals wooden trestle work built to correct grade elevation., The first train to cross the trestle was the construction train, bringing supplies for the railway to continue its westward crawl to Edmonton. By November 1909 that part of the line was finished, and trains could travel all the way from Wainwright to Edmonton., The push across the west proved too much for the Grand Pacific Railway.It declared bankruptcy in 1919, and became part of Canadian National Railway (CNR) in 1923. The tracks through Wainwright became the CNR's main line., The trestle has remained much as it was when it was completed in 1908. The concrete footings were refaced in the 1940s. In 1981 a new concrete deck for the gravel, called ballast, under the ties was added to the trestle. A full walkway with railing was also added., [Captions] , . (Top) Opening of the Battle River bridge 1909 Glenbow Archives NA-544-12 , . (Bottom) Steam locomotive on track Battle River Historical Society