In May of 2008 after three years of construction the new five-lane William R. Bennett bridge opened to automobiles, trucks, motorcycles, pedestrians, and bicycle traffic. The old three-lane Okanagan Lake floating bridge, opened in 1958 was official decommissioned.
After years of rumbling traffic I had an unique opportunity to photograph the silent bridge soon after the new bridge opened but before the old bridge was closed to the public. As I recall it was an interesting day with people just wandering about with no fear of any zooming vehicle traffic. I made these pictures with my 4 x 5 view camera, mostly a 120mm lens and Tri-X film.
Over the next year or so the old bridge was deconstructed with cutting torches, excavators with attachments for breaking up large pieces of concrete. After the job was completed it was scrap metal for recycling and chunks of concrete for fill. The photos in this gallery are part of my own personal collection of work. I also documented the whole deconstruction with great interest and fascination for the paper I work for the Kelowna Daily Courier.
The link to those pictures are at the Courier's website, the paper that I have worked for the past 33 years.
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