On our recent visit to Almonte, we decided to explore some new places - and we ended up driving to a village called Pakenham, where there used to be several mills across the river...
The mills were built near the river so that they could run on water power, much like the mill in Manotick. They, of course, needed a bridge…
The first bridge was a wooden structure. When it burned down, they decided to build a stone one. Here it is - the only five-span stone bridge in North America.
This picture shows a white truck driving over the bridge.
It was originally built in 1903 - but reinforced in 1984.
I had a hard time taking a clear picture of the bridge, for some reason - the angle of the sun, perhaps.
What I found astounding was that it was built in only 7 weeks - using local stone and local labourers.
Glad to know it’s been reinforced... It gets a lot of traffic - both cars and even trucks continually crossing. When a truck crosses, the bridge becomes a single lane.
The park next to the bridge is a popular place for picnics. Terry noted that some energetic visitors may have wanted to picnic in the water!
An interesting place to visit!
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