End of the line? Victoria's historic Johnson Street Bridge, with two parallel bascule spans carrying rail, road and pedestrian traffic over Victoria Harbor, may have hosted its last train: A structural inspection last week revealed corrosion damage to critical members and forced the bridge to be closed to rail traffic. The city is considering whether or not to invest funds to repair the bridge and resume service to the VIA depot; compounding the situation, the bridge is functionally obsolete and is scheduled to be replaced by a new span (omitting a railroad component due to cost), with the existing spans to ultimately close in early 2012.
The photograph above, taken in happier times, depicts the Malahat just rumbling onto the bridge, deadheading back to the shops after dropping passengers at the end-of-the-line depot in Victoria -- a scene that may never again be repeated.
