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Bridges in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Four known bridges have spanned the narrows between the Inner Harbour and Upper Harbour of Victoria, British Columbia, connecting Johnson Street on the east shore with Esquimalt Road on the west shore. The current bridge is Canada's largest single leaf bascule bridge.

A low wagon bridge was completed in 1855, which blocked marine traffic. It was dismantled in 1862 and was replaced with a ferry service.

In 1888, a hand operated swing bridge of limited load capacity was built for rail and foot traffic only.

The third Johnson Street Bridge was built as two adjacent, independent, heel trunnion bascule bridges, a three lane road span of , and a single track rail span of The approaches were fixed steel girders; the east and the west Counterweights were of hollow concrete weighing Operating struts were moved by pinions powered by electric motors.

The Johnson Street Bridge was designed under the direction of Mr. F. M. Preston, City Engineer in 1920. The Strauss Bascule Bridge Company, which held the patents on the design, prepared the plans for the bascule spans and the operating machinery. The superstructure of the bridge was fabricated in Walkerville, Ontario of 100 tons of steel. The sub structure was built by the City of Victoria Engineering Department and required of concrete. The bridge was completed at a cost of $918,000 (27 per cent higher than the estimated cost of $720,000) and opened in January 1924. The bridge originally had street car rails running down the center of the road span, but they were never used, and were removed a few years later. In 1966, the wood deck was replaced with steel grid, as rainwater absorbed by the deck unbalanced the bridge, straining the lifting gear. In 1979, extensive repairs were made to the superstructure, which had become severely corroded. Following these repairs, the bridge was painted blue. The paint was selected because the oxides of its pigment are the same colour as the paint so that little fading of the colour occurs. The City of Victoria had used the same blue paint for the lamp standards throughout the city. In 1995, abnormally high temperatures caused the steel decking to expand to the point the bridge would not open or close properly. This necessitated the removal of about of the decking. Daily traffic in 2010 was 30,000 trips a day at peak usage, of which 4000 are pedestrians, 3000 cyclists, and 23,000 vehicles. Until 2011, the rail span for the E&N was used twice a day by the Via Rail Dayliner, for trips up the island towards Duncan, Nanaimo and Courtenay.

On March 31, 2011, the rail span was closed to rail traffic after a routine inspection found corrosion damage on key structural elements. A preliminary estimate of repair costs was $120,000. The railway span and approaches were removed in February 2012 to make room for the new bridge. Rail freight service up Store St. to commercial properties on the east side of the Upper Harbour had been discontinued decades before. Since then, the line terminated at a small passenger station beside the bridge. Victoria–Courtenay passenger service was suspended indefinitely in March 2011 due to deteriorating track.

On March 31, 2018, the road span was closed to pedestrian traffic, after being closed to vehicular traffic two days earlier. The closing/commissioning ceremony was attended by Victoria City Councillors, mayors from across the Capital Regional District, project managers and engineers for the new bridge, and members of the public. The road span and approaches were removed during spring 2018.

Construction of a rolling bascule bridge beside the third bridge began in 2013, and opened to the public on March 31, 2018. As of December 31, 2017, actual costs of $96.08 million had been incurred, to an approved budget of $105.06 million. The bridge affords a three lane roadway, a pedestrian walkway on the south side, and a multi use pathway on the north side.