Park Bridge - Kicking Horse Canyon, 12.5 km east of Golden
This graceful structure, measuring 405 metres in length and soaring 90 metres high, was a joint BC – Canada project completed in August, 2007. The Park Bridge serves as a tribute to those who built it and as a significant transportation link that follows the same challenging route through this historic canyon previously traversed by the Palliser Expedition, the Canadian Pacific Railway and the original highway.
The Park Bridge - Kicking Horse Canyon is one of the new Stop of Interest signs erected in 2008 to celebrate the BC150 anniversary of British Columbia.
The Kicking Horse River originates at Wapta Lake in the Rocky Mountains and flows swiftly westward to where it joins the Columbia River at Golden. Just east of Golden it passes through the narrow and turbulent Kicking Horse Canyon. The river received its name because of an incident in August 1859 when Dr. James Hector (later Sir James Hector), a geologist with the Palliser Expedition, was kicked in the chest by one of his packhorses and severely injured.
The Kicking Horse River was selected as the route along which the Canadian Pacific Railway would travel in eastern BC and was also chosen for the Trans-Canada Highway (Highway 1). The Kicking Horse Canyon section of the Trans-Canada Highway between Golden and the western entrance to Yoho National Park is being upgraded and as part of the work a new span called the Park Bridge was completed in August 2007.
