Cisco Bridges


The Cisco Bridges are a pair of railroad bridges at Siska near Lytton, British Columbia, Canada. The Canadian Pacific Railway and Canadian National Railway both follow the route of the Fraser River, one on each side, and the routes exchange sides at this point. The easier CPR route was laid first; when the CNR arrived later they needed to follow the more difficult route. The area is popular with railfans due to the proximity of the two bridges, and the easy access to the area is parallel to both bridges down the east bank of the river. Directional running in the Fraser Canyon means that both CPR and CNR trains may be seen on both bridges.

Canadian National Railway

The Canadian National bridge is a truss arch bridge, long and high. The north-west end of the bridge abuts into a near-vertical rock face. The south-east end of the bridge crosses the CPR tracks about north of the CPR bridge.

Canadian Pacific Railway

The Canadian Pacific bridge is a 3-span, truss bridge. There are two short Pratt truss spans at each end of the longer Parker truss main span. The south end of the bridge enters directly into the Cantilever Bar Tunnel, in the side of the Cisco Bluff.
The original span was built by Joseph Tomlinson III and was pre-fabricated in England and shipped to Canada in 1883. The bridge – then one of the longest cantilever spans in North American – was then constructed by the San Francisco Bridge Company. When the current bridge was built at Cisco in 1910, the original span was moved to the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway on Vancouver Island to cross the Niagara Creek Canyon, where it is still in use.