Ducharme Bridge, Covered road bridge in La Bostonnais, Quebec, Canada.
The Ducharme Bridge is a covered road bridge over the Bostonnais River on Rue de l'Église in La Bostonnais. Its 41.76 m single span uses a Town elaborated lattice truss of spruce planks, with vertical posts every 2.4 m and double steel tie rods. The roof has two slopes of corrugated sheet metal; the clapboard siding is painted red, with white corner boards and casings, and oblique lintels frame two long side openings.
Settlers of the Bourgeoys township, now La Bostonnais, began settling both banks of the Bostonnais River in 1932 and crossed by canoe. Two temporary bridges were built in 1940; in 1945 Quebec authorized two covered bridges, Ducharme and Thiffault, built by local labour and finished the next year. Both were inaugurated at a celebration where Vicar General Paul-Émile Doyon blessed them and MLA Charles Romulus Ducharme cut the ribbon.
The bridge honours Charles Romulus Ducharme, MLA for Laviolette from 1936 to 1939 and 1944 to 1967, who cut the ribbon at its inauguration. Félix Leclerc, a native of the region, mentions the bridge in his writings, and La Bostonnais uses a covered bridge in its coat of arms.
The bridge is on Rue de l'Église in the heart of La Bostonnais and, with the Thiffault bridge, forms one of two links between Route 155 and Rang Sud-Est. The entrance frame limits vehicles to a height of 3.2 m and a load of 5 tonnes; the deck is 5.28 m wide. A small park was laid out beside it by the municipality.
This bridge represents one of the final examples of a bridge engineering method developed by Quebec's Department of Colonization in the early 20th century. Such wooden structures were gradually replaced by modern construction techniques, making them uncommon sights today.
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