The dangerous business of building the Victoria Bridge
Building a 3 km-long bridge over the icy waters of the St. Lawrence River — working inside wooden caissons — is a potentially deadly endeavour.
Connecting Montreal to Canada's growing rail network is treacherous work
Building in the middle of a fast-moving river comes with death-defying challenges. Engineer Benjamin Chaffey and his crew assemble the enormous stone footings for the Victoria Bridge — working inside caissons — in the middle of the St. Lawrence River.
They're working with heavy cranes and massive ten-tonne stones to build these pillars. If the caissons can't hold, there's nowhere to go — except into the icy water.