Audio Transcript

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What does a beam bridge say to a dishonest truss bridge? Not cool man, I truss..ted you! Okay that was a bad joke, but it was a good segue to the topic of beam bridges, like the Albert Memorial beam bridge you're looking at to be exact. The bridge's construction was part of a larger relief project during the Great Depression, which also included draining and dredging the adjacent Wascana lake, and building 2 islands.

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As you can see, the bridge is pretty fancy. It's got Egyptian motifs, artistic balusters and even buffalo heads. Although the bridge's cost was supposed to be less than $100,0000, the final cost was $250,0000. It was ridiculed by locals because of how over budget it was, and became known as Bryant's folly after then public works minister James Bryant.

 

In our completely fake historical recreation, Bryant defended the cost by saying, "well, I wasn't really sure what a budget was". It opened in 1930 and was dedicated as a memorial to the Saskatchewan soldiers who died in World War 1. The bridge was rededicated in 1988 after a 1.4 million dollar restoration project. In June 2009, another $500,0000 refurbishment project saw the deck resurfaced and decorative elements like the terra cotta balustrades restored.