This Day in Canadian History: January 9 – The Night the Winds Took the Bridge

The Story: January 9, 1889

We tend to think of our greatest landmarks as permanent, but on this stormy night in 1889, Mother Nature proved otherwise.

For years, the Niagara Clifton Suspension Bridge was a marvel of engineering. It spanned the mighty Niagara River, connecting Canada to the United States with a grace that attracted tourists from all over the world. It was the “Gateway to the Falls.”

But on the night of January 9th, a ferocious gale struck the gorge.

Witnesses said the winds were so powerful they could hear the steel cables “singing” and groaning above the roar of the falls. Sometime after midnight, the unthinkable happened. The massive suspension chains snapped.

In a matter of seconds, the entire 1,200-foot roadway was ripped from its anchors and plunged into the churning river below. Miraculously, because the storm had been raging for hours, no one was on the bridge when it fell.

The next morning, crowds gathered in silence on the cliffs. Where a bridge had stood for 20 years, there was only empty air and a twisted wreckage of steel bobbing in the water.

Also On This Day…

While 1889 was about bridges falling down, more recent January 9ths have been about power and politics.

1998: The Ice Storm Peaks By January 9, 1998, the “Great Ice Storm” had turned from a weather event into a national crisis.
- Millions of people in Quebec, Ontario, and New Brunswick were waking up to another day of freezing darkness.
- This was the week the Canadian Army deployed 16,000 troops—the largest peacetime deployment in our history—to help clear trees and get generators to dairy farmers who were desperate to milk their cows.
1992: Nova Scotia Power Goes Private It was on this day that the Nova Scotia government officially announced plans to privatize the Crown corporation, Nova Scotia Power.
- At the time, the utility was carrying a massive debt of $2.4 billion. The decision to sell it off sparked arguments that are still being had in coffee shops across the province today.

Snapshot: Life in 1889

When the bridge fell into the river in 1889, Canada was a very different place:

The Prime Minister: Sir John A. Macdonald was still in charge (he would win his final election two years later).
The Map: Alberta and Saskatchewan didn’t exist yet—they were still part of the “North-West Territories.”
The Technology: There were no cars to drive across that bridge. It was built for carriages and pedestrians.

Your Turn to Reminisce

The Collapse of ’89 is history, but the Ice Storm of ’98 is a memory we all share.

Where were you when the lights went out? Did you lose power for a few hours, or were you one of the families cooking on a wood stove for two weeks?

Reply to this email or leave a comment: Tell us your “Ice Storm Survival Story.”